Systems, methods and programmed products for electronic bidding on and electronic tracking, delivery and performance of digital advertisements on non-personal digital devices

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods that provide electronic bidding on digital advertising placed on non-personal digital devices in public or semi-public settings and enable subsequent consumer actions taken on other media channels and devices to be attributed to such advertising in digital ad buying systems.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application claiming priority to andthe benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/670,392, filed Oct.31, 2019 and entitled SYSTEMS, METHODS AND PROGRAMMED PRODUCTS FORELECTRONIC BIDDING ON AND ELECTRONIC TRACKING, DELIVERY AND PERFORMANCEOF DIGITAL ADVERTISEMENTS ON NON-PERSONAL DIGITAL DEVICES, which is acontinuation application claiming priority to and the benefit of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/353,550, filed Mar. 14, 2019 and entitledSYSTEMS, METHODS AND PROGRAMMED PRODUCTS FOR ELECTRONIC BIDDING ON ANDELECTRONIC TRACKING, DELIVERY AND PERFORMANCE OF DIGITAL ADVERTISEMENTSON NON-PERSONAL DIGITAL DEVICES, which in turn is a non-provisionalclaiming priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 62/644,079, filed Mar. 16, 2018 and entitled SYSTEMS,METHODS AND PROGRAMMED PRODUCTS FOR ELECTRONIC BIDDING ON AND ELECTRONICTRACKING, DELIVERY AND PERFORMANCE OF DIGITAL ADVERTISEMENTS ONELECTRONIC DIGITAL DISPLAYS, the contents of which are incorporatedherein by reference in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is generally directed to systems, methods andprogram products for digital advertising on a non-personal digitaldevice in a public or semi-public setting, and more particularly tosystems, methods and program products for linking other forms of digitaladvertising (e.g., online, mobile, social, etc.) with digitaladvertising on a non-personal digital device.

BACKGROUND

Over the past decade, the advent of modern digital advertisingtechnologies has transformed many forms of digital advertising. Onehallmark of these digital advertising technologies (collectivelyreferred to as “programmatic” advertising) is the ability to bidelectronically on digital advertising opportunities, either inreal-time, using so-called “real-time bidding” (RTB) techniques or inadvance using so-called “private deal” techniques, via electronicplatforms. Programmatic techniques for electronic bidding, including RTBand private deals, via digital ad buying systems enables buyers (e.g.,agencies or advertisers) to electronically identify, and with a highlevel of precision, electronically target their digital advertisementsand bid on exactly the electronic devices that best meet their businessobjectives for the digital advertisements to be placed. Programmaticdigital advertising technology also enables buyers to directly associatesubsequent consumer actions via the electronic devices (e.g., visiting awebsite or making an online purchase, to name a few) with the priordelivery of a digital advertisement, via a process called “attribution”that links the two events via a common identifier. The attributionprocess seeks to associate digital advertisements shown to a consumerand subsequent actions taken by the consumer. When the two events occuron different devices, the process is known as “cross-deviceattribution.”

These programmatic benefits of precise targetability (via electronicbidding) and impact measurement (via attribution) have driven massivegrowth in many forms of digital advertising, including online displayadvertising, online video advertising, mobile advertising, social mediaadvertising, and others—typically delivered on personal electronicdevices such as laptop computers, desktop computers, smartphones,tablets, and other personal electronic devices.

However, it has not hitherto been possible to obtain these benefits inthe context of digital advertising on a non-personal digital device,such as devices that may be in a public or semi-public setting (e.g.,digital advertising displayed on digital billboards, on street kiosks,on trains or buses, in elevators, in taxis, in restaurants, in healthclubs, in movie theaters, and/or in airports, to name a few) because ofseveral technical reasons.

One technical issue associated with current digital ad buying systems,is that digital advertising delivered on personal electronic devices isassumed to be seen by one individual—e.g., a user of the personalelectronic device. By contrast, digital advertising on a non-personaldigital device in a public or semi-public setting may be seen by morethan one individual, and often by many individuals, at the same time.Current programmatic techniques do not provide a technological solutionto address the technical issues created by the situation involvingmultiple distinct individuals exposed to a single advertisement on anon-personal digital device. Efforts to date have focused on automatingthe buying of digital advertising on non-personal digital devices, buthave failed to produce the capability using technology to trackindividual instances of the digital advertisements delivered toindividual consumers (“impressions”). Some existing methods and systemsattempt to record a so-called “impression multiplier” corresponding tothe estimated number of consumers exposed to an advertisement on anon-personal digital device. However, these methods and systems sufferfrom technical drawbacks since they do not create individual atomicrecords of each impression, nor do they allow the capture of uniqueidentifiers that can power attribution.

Another technical issue associated with current digital advertisingsystems arises because digital advertising delivered on personalelectronic devices leverages the fact that those devices belong tospecific individuals and typically have device-specific advertisingidentifiers (also referred to herein as “advertising identifiers”) thatcan be used to recognize the device (which is then a proxy for theindividual). Those identifiers are used to uniquely identify theadvertising event and associate that event with a subsequent event onthe same device (via same-device attribution) or another devicebelonging to the same individual (via cross-device attribution). Bycontrast, digital advertising on a non-personal digital device in apublic or semi-public setting is, by definition, delivered on devicesthat have no association to the individuals seeing the advertising, anddigital ad buying systems today have no means to associate subsequentevents taken by the individuals exposed to the advertising in question.Efforts to date have focused on measuring aggregate statistical impactof exposure to digital advertising on non-personal digital devices(e.g., via surveys of exposed users or other sampling approaches), or onnarrowly measuring direct consumer response to digital advertising onnon-personal digital devices via some immediate call to action (e.g.,scanning a unique QR code), but have failed to produce any technology toassociate, within a digital ad buying system or an integratedmeasurement platform, subsequent consumer actions (e.g., visiting awebsite or making an online purchase) on a personal electronic devicetaken after the ad exposure on a non-personal digital device.

What is needed is a way to solve these technological problems withexisting digital buying systems to enable (a) electronic bidding ondigital advertising on non-personal digital devices, and (b) subsequentconsumer actions taken on personal electronic devices to be attributedto such digital advertising.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to enable (a) electronic biddingon digital advertising on non-personal digital devices, and (b)subsequent consumer actions taken on personal electronic devices to beattributed to such digital advertising.

Another object of the present invention is to implement a specifictechnological application to enable buying and measurement of digitaladvertising on non-personal digital devices in public or semi-publicsettings, which is seamlessly integrated with the systems and methodsfor buying and measurement of digital advertising in other channels andon other devices and platforms.

Another object of the present invention is to provide systems andmethods that:

1) track individual impressions, e.g., instances of digital advertisingon non-personal digital devices in public or semi-public settings whichmay have been seen by a specific group of consumers, by associating themwith personal electronic devices carried by those consumers via thepersonal electronic device identifiers, and

2) enable the association of those impressions to subsequent actionsthat may be taken by those same consumers, either on the exposedpersonal electronic devices or on other personal electronic devicesowned by those consumers, by supplying device-specific advertisingidentifiers to digital ad buying systems or other integrated measurementplatforms that track those subsequent actions and can match them to theimpressions, thereby leveraging a variety of ID-matching approaches.

These technological solutions have heretofore not been applied in thiscontext.

A method in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention comprises: (A) receiving, at one or more computers, from anon-personal digital device, an indication that an ad slot will beavailable for display of a digital advertisement on the non-personaldigital device at a first period of time; (B) calling, by the one ormore computers, N digital ad buying systems, where N is equal to one ormore, the step of calling comprising: (i) estimating, by the one or morecomputers, a projected number of advertising impressions related to thedigital advertisement displayed by the non-personal digital deviceduring the first period of time; (ii) generating an impression estimateX based on at least the projected number of advertising impressions;(iii) generating, by the one or more computers, Y bid requests for eachof the N digital ad buying systems, where Y is equal to the number ofdifferent messages required to express advertising formats supported byboth the non-personal digital device and the N digital ad buyingsystems; and (iv) sending, by the one or more computers, to each of theN digital ad buying systems, the Y bid requests, with each of the Y bidrequests comprising the impression estimate X; and (C) receiving, by theone or more computers, from each of the N digital ad buying systems, Ybid responses to the Y bid requests, wherein the Y bid responses includeZ bids, where Z is equal to one or more, each of the Z bids comprising:(i) pricing information associated with a price that a respectivedigital ad buying system of the N digital buying systems is willing topay per impression; (ii) digital advertisement creative information,wherein the digital advertisement creative information includes at leastone of a digital advertisement creative or an identifier associated witha previously registered digital advertisement creative, where thedigital advertisement creative is to be displayed in the case where thebid response is a winning bid response; (iii) metadata associated withthe digital advertisement creative information; and (iv) digital adbuying impression data configured for registering up to X impressions inthe respective digital ad buying system; (D) selecting, by the one ormore computers, from at least some of the bid responses received fromthe N digital ad buying systems, a winning bid included in a winning bidresponse associated with a winning digital ad buying system of the Ndigital buying systems associated with a winning advertiser; (E)notifying, by the one or more computers, the winning digital ad buyingsystem of the winning bid included in the winning bid response, the stepof notifying comprising: (i) obtaining, by the one or more computers,from the winning bid response, X sets of digital ad buying impressiondata provided by the winning digital ad buying system associated withthe winning advertiser, the X sets of digital ad buying impression dataconfigured to generate one or more won impression notifications afterreceipt of an initial win notification; (ii) generating, by the one ormore computers, X won impression notifications based on at least theobtained X sets of digital ad buying impression data; (iii) generating,by the one or more computers, X unique placeholder advertisingidentifiers; (iv) appending, by the one or more computers, the X uniqueplaceholder advertising identifiers to the X won impressionnotifications; and (v) sending, from the one or more computers to thewinning digital ad buying system, the X won impression notificationswith the appended unique placeholder advertising identifiers; (F)accessing, by the one or more computers, the digital advertisingcreative associated with the winning bid; (G) formatting, by the one ormore computers, the winning digital advertising creative for display onthe non-personal digital device, the step of formatting comprising: (i)modifying, by the one or more computers, the winning digital advertisingcreative to optimize size and location associated with the display ofthe winning digital advertising creative on the non-personal digitaldevice; (ii) extracting, by the one or more computers, from the winningdigital advertising creative, one or more ad tags for capturinginformation related to delivery of the winning digital advertisingcreative; and (iii) extracting, by the one or more computers, from thewinning digital advertising creative, one or more click trackersprovided for recording interactions and recording events initiated onone or more personal electronic devices associated with one or moreconsumers exposed to the winning digital advertising creative.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, the stepof accessing comprises identifying the digital advertising creativeinformation associated with the winning digital advertising creative.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, the stepof accessing comprises receiving the winning digital advertisingcreative from an ad server.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, the stepof formatting further comprises: (iv) determining whether an entireavailable display area of the non-personal digital device is occupied bythe winning digital advertising creative; and (v) upon the conditionthat the winning digital advertising creative does not occupy the entireavailable display area of the non-personal digital device, adding, bythe one or more computers, to the winning digital advertising creative,at least one of a design element or content.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, the stepof formatting further comprises: (iv) appending, by the one or morecomputers, a consumer-executable call-to-action to the digitaladvertising creative that can be performed on the one or more personalelectronic devices.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, themethod further comprises (H) translating, by the one or more computers,plays of the formatted digital advertising creative on the non-personaldigital device into one or more impressions associated with actualdevice-specific advertising identifiers, the step of translatingcomprising: (i) collecting, by the one or more computers, observationdata comprising data associated with one or more observed personalelectronic devices, the observation data comprising: 1) one or moreactual device-specific advertising identifiers comprised of at least oneof: mobile advertising IDs, browser cookies, account user names, e-mailaddresses or hashed e-mail tokens; 2) location data; and 3) anobservation timestamp indicating a time an observation occurred; (ii)determining, by the one or more computers, based on the observationdata, one or more impressions corresponding to the one or more observedpersonal electronic devices that were within a predetermined viewablegeometry around the non-personal digital device during the first timeperiod; and (iii) substituting, by the one or more computers, the one ormore placeholder advertising identifiers with the one or more collectedactual device-specific advertising identifiers associated with the oneor more impressions.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, theimpression estimate X is determined based on at least one of thefollowing data items: (i) rating agency data from rating agencies; (ii)network connection data from network connections; (iii) sensor datacollected from one or more sensors; (iv) the observation data; or (v)mobile application data from one or more mobile applications.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, the stepof determining an impression estimate X comprises calculating, by theone or more computers, an estimation of viewers based on a combinationof data from a plurality of estimation data sources.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, the stepof determining an impression estimate X comprises adjusting, by the oneor more computers, obtained estimation data for at least one of: time ofday, day of week, seasonality and observational data skew, real-timenetwork activity, or real-time sensor data.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, the stepof generating, by the one or more computers, Y bid requests in anappropriate format, comprises the steps of: identifying, by the one ormore computers, display capabilities of the non-personal digital device;translating, by the one or more computers, the display capabilities intoone or more standard digital formats that can be displayed given thedisplay capabilities of the non-personal digital device either throughdirect transformation or composition with other elements; andgenerating, by the one or more computers, for each of the N digital adbuying systems, the Y bid requests each associated with the one or morestandard digital formats.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, thedisplay capabilities comprise at least one of the following: (i) screenresolution; (ii) display size; (iii) video support; (iv) computationalcapacity; (v) audio capabilities; or (vi) zoning restrictions.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, theobservation data is collected from a plurality of different observationdata sources through an application programming interface.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, themethod further comprises: (I) normalizing, by the one or more computers,the observation data, wherein the step of normalizing comprises thesteps of: (i) translating, by the one or more computers, observationdata from data providers into a standardized format; and (ii)validating, by the one or more computers, observation data from dataproviders by eliminating invalid data, the invalid data comprising atleast one of the following: (a) observation data provided in an invalidformat; (b) observation data provided after a published expirationwindow; (c) observation data provided with insufficient fidelity oraccuracy, as measured against trusted sources; (d) observation dataprovided which was interpolated from a lower-resolution data-source; (e)observation data provided which exhibits irregularities in distribution;or (f) observation data that is duplicative with other observation data.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, themethod further comprises: (H) generating, by the one or more computers,a single proxy-ID associated with one or more non-personal digitaldevices potentially viewed by a unique group of consumers, based on atleast one of the following: configurable intervals of time, observedpersonal devices or computer vision analysis; and (I) sending, by theone or more computers, the proxy-ID with each of the Y bid requests, tothe N digital ad buying systems so that the one or more computers allowthe digital ad buying systems to perform frequency capping and preventover-exposure of a group of consumers near a particular non-personaldigital device to a particular advertiser campaign or creative.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, themethod further comprises: (I) removing observation data associated withone or more personal electronic devices on which personal devicerestrictions are enabled for distribution of at least one ofdevice-specific advertising identifiers or location information.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, themethod further comprises: (H) determining, by the one or more computers,whether the bid responses contain valid digital advertisement creatives,wherein the step of determining comprises: (i) determining, by the oneor more computers, whether the bid responses contain a digitaladvertisement creative that was previously approved; (ii) determining,by the one or more computers, whether the bid responses contain adigital advertisement creative that was previously rejected; and (iii)determining, by the one or more computers, whether the bid responsescontain a digital advertisement creative with non-reviewed status.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, the stepof determining, by the one or more computers, whether the bid responsesare valid comprises at least one of the following steps: (iv) receiving,at the one or more computers, non-reviewed digital advertisementcreatives from the digital ad buying systems, in real-time during theelectronic bidding process or in advance, prior to the electronicbidding process, wherein the step of receiving comprises at least one ofthe following: (1) identifying, by the one or more computers,non-reviewed digital advertisements; (2) providing, at the one or morecomputers, an application programming interface allowing for submissionof new digital advertisements for review; or (3) determining, by the oneor more computers, previously rejected bid responses with non-revieweddigital advertisement creatives to identify digital advertisementcreatives needing review; (v) converting, by the one or more computersystems, formatted digital advertisements into image or videorepresentations for review by publishers to determine approved orrejected status; (vi) providing, by the one or more computers, agraphical user interface to allow for review and correction of metadataassociated with a digital advertisement creative; or (vii) providing, bythe one or more computers, workflow consistent with a required sequenceof multiple reviewers or review processes.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, themethod further comprises: (I) dynamically identifying, by the one ormore computers, actions performed on the one or more observed personaldevices in direct response to a call to action in the digitaladvertising creative displayed on the non-personal digital device,wherein the step of dynamically identifying comprises: (i) receiving, atthe one or more computers, from at least one of the one or more observedpersonal electronic devices, an indication that a direct response to thecall-to-action was performed; (ii) retrieving, by the one or morecomputers, at least one of an associated advertisement auctionidentifier, an associated digital advertising campaign identifier, or anassociated digital advertising creative identifier by matching againstattributes of the call-to-action response; (iii) appending, by the oneor more computers, (a) the actual device-specific advertising identifierassociated with the at least one of the one or more observed personalelectronic devices and (b) the at least one of the associatedadvertisement auction identifier, the associated digital advertisingcampaign identifier, or the associated digital advertising creativeidentifier, to the extracted one or more click trackers; (iv)performing, by the one or more computers, a virtual consumer actionusing the extracted one or more click trackers as appended, to allow thewinning digital ad buying system to track an event corresponding to thedirect response to the call-to-action; and (v) in association withperformance of the virtual consumer action, triggering the one or moreclick trackers with the appended device-specific advertising identifiersand the at least one of the associated advertisement auction identifier,the associated digital advertising campaign identifier, or theassociated digital advertising creative identifier, so as to registerthe virtual consumer action in the winning digital ad buying system.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, thecall-to-action comprises at least one of: transmission of an SMS, MMS orother messaging system message, visit to a pre-defined webpage URL,scanning of a QR code and execution of an associated embedded action,e-mailing a pre-defined e-mail address, executing a command within anassociated computer application, scanning of a coupon code, placing acall to a unique call-tracking telephone number, or posting a socialmedia message with a unique hashtag.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, theattributes of the call-to-action comprises at least one of: date of thecall-to-action, time of the call-to-action, an advertising campaignassociated with the call-to-action or a keyword associated with thecall-to-action.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, themethod further comprises: (I) identifying, by the one or more computers,the one or more impressions; and (J) sending, by the one or morecomputers, the one or more impressions to the winning digital ad buyingsystem or an integrated measurement platform associated with the winningdigital ad buying system within a timeframe allowing the one or moreimpressions to be associated, by virtue of the appended device-specificadvertising identifiers and at least one of an associated advertisementauction identifier, an associated digital advertising campaignidentifier, or an associated digital advertising creative identifier,with other events performed on the one or more personal electronicdevices and recorded by the winning digital ad buying system or anintegrated measurement platform, so as to enable the attribution processwithin the winning digital ad buying system or the integratedmeasurement platform, for impressions delivered on non-personal digitaldevices.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, thedigital advertisement comprises digital messages for display on thenon-personal digital device.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, thedigital messages comprise at least one of text, image or video.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, thedigital advertisement comprises audio messages for play automatically oron-demand on the non-personal digital device.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, the Y bidrequests represent digital formats or capabilities which thenon-personal digital device is able to support.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, thedigital formats or capabilities comprise at least one of: (i)device-specific ad formats; (ii) IAB standard ad units; (ii) VAST video;(iii) device representations; or (iv) at least one of website orapplication identifiers.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, thelocation data for observations comprises at least one of: (i) latitudeand longitude data; (ii) Geohash data; (iii) real-time network usagedata; (iv) sensor-collected data; (v) application-derived user locationdata; or (vi) purchased third-party location data.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, the adtags comprise at least one of impression trackers or measurement code.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with the present invention, thestep of selecting comprises: (i) filtering, by the one or morecomputers, the at least some of the bid responses based on filteringcriteria so as to determine two or more potential winning bid responses;and (ii) selecting, by the one or more computers, the winning bid fromthe two or more potential winning bid responses based on winning bidcriteria.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, thewinning bid criteria comprises at least one of a highest price, campaignpacing, campaign fulfillment thresholds, publisher frequency limits,publisher advertiser whitelists/blacklists, or content relevance.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, thefiltering criteria comprises at least one of whether the bid meetsminimum pricing requirements, whether the digital advertising creativeassociated with the bid has been reviewed and approved for display, orwhether the bid matches any relevant private deals.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention,device-specific ad unit formats comprise at least one of non-IABstandard dimensions that may be more common on non-personal digitaldevices, such as 1024×768, 1920×1080, 1080×1920, 720×1280, and3840×2160, to name a few. Format details may also include details suchas aspect ratio and diagonal size of the non-personal digital device.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, IABstandard ad units include those that have been outlined by theInteractive Advertising Bureau (IAB) in their Display & MobileAdvertising Creative Format Guidelines. Specific examples include mediumrectangle (300×250), wide skyscrape (160×600), leaderboard (728×90), andhalf page (300×600), to name a few.

VAST video is the digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST), another IABstandard specification that details the transmission of videoadvertising along with tracking instructions to measure completion ratesand interaction with either the video or the video player.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, examplesof device representations include operating system (e.g., Windows,Chrome, Android, iOS, etc.), browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Chrome,Safari), and corresponding build and version numbers. Devicerepresentation may also include details regarding enabled or disabledattributes of the digital devices, such as audio and video or specificsupported file formats (e.g., .wav, .mp3, .mp4, Adobe Flash, .png, .gif,.jpg), to name a few.

In exemplary embodiments in accordance with present invention, examplesof website/application identifiers include domain URLs, IAB categoryIDs, mobile application store app IDs, and mobile application build orversion numbers, to name a few.

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will bepresented in more detail in the following detailed description and theaccompanying figures which illustrate by way of example principles ofthe invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention will be more fully understood with reference to the followingdetailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanyingfigures, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary environment in which a digitaladvertisement is displayed on a network-connected digital display systemfor a non-personal digital device in accordance with exemplaryembodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary configuration of participant systems andplatforms in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C show front, cross-section, and top viewsrespectively of an exemplary electronic display system for anon-personal digital device in a public or semi-public setting inaccordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a conceptual flow in accordance with exemplaryembodiments of the present invention;

FIGS. 5A-5E are exemplary block diagrams of a system for connectingnon-personal digital devices to programmatic ad buying systems inaccordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention;

FIGS. 6A-6I are conceptual flow diagrams showing the bidding process inaccordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is an exemplary block diagram of a system for connectingnon-personal digital devices to programmatic ad buying systems inaccordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention;

FIGS. 8A-8F illustrate an exemplary display screen of a non-personaldigital device in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 9 is an exemplary flowchart of a method for processing bids andenabling attribution based on won bid impressions associated withadvertisements intended for display on a non-personal digital displaydevice in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure is generally directed to systems, methods andprogram products for digital advertising on non-personal digital devicesin public or semi-public settings, and more particularly to systems,methods and program products for linking other forms of digitaladvertising (e.g., online, mobile, social, etc.) with digitaladvertising on a non-personal digital device.

Various embodiments of the present invention address technologicalchallenges associated with current and traditional electronic bidding,delivery, and tracking systems for digital advertising. Existing digitalad buying systems face technological challenges with providing thecapability to bid on digital advertisement placements on non-personaldigital devices. Existing digital ad buying systems also facetechnological challenges with providing the capability to individuallyand electronically track and communicate digital advertisementsdelivered to consumers viewing non-personal digital devices andautomatically match those impressions to enable attribution ofsubsequent actions by those consumers (e.g., visiting a website,downloading an app, or buying products online or offline) on a personalelectronic device via a process of analyzing disparate events believedto be associated with the same consumer to establish a connectionbetween the advertisement and subsequent action (“attribution”).

In exemplary embodiments, the present invention addresses thistechnological problem by providing a system to enable: 1) purchase, bydigital ad buying systems (e.g., “demand side platforms”, “DSPs”, “adservers” or “bidders”), of the opportunity to display a digitaladvertisement on a non-personal digital device in a public orsemi-public setting, using an adaptation of electronic bidding thatenables the platforms to track and measure the exposure to individualconsumers (“individual impressions”) associated with the display of thatadvertisement; 2) identification and collection of “observations” ofpersonal electronic devices, with device-specific advertisingidentifiers (e.g., Apple's IDFA or Android's AAID), belonging to aconsumer located in a position (“viewing geometry”) relative to anon-personal digital device in a public or semi-public space at a timeof an advertisement on that device from which the consumer could haveobserved the advertisement; and/or 3) relaying of the device-specificadvertising identifiers and associated information via the uniqueprogrammatic integration, in a privacy-compliant manner, to digital adbuying systems, allowing them or other integrated measurement platformsto associate subsequent actions taken by those consumers to theimpressions on non-personal digital devices (thereby enabling an arrayof operations within the digital ad buying system or other integratedmeasurement platforms, including, e.g., planning, reporting,attribution, analytics, and campaign optimization). Examples of suchintegrated measurement platforms include Market Share, DataSong,Convertro, VisualIQ, Adometry, C3 Metrics, ThinkVine, Clear Saleing,Encore, and Marketing Evolution, to name a few.

In exemplary embodiments, the technological solution of the presentinvention (i) collects personal electronic device observations frommultiple sources, (ii) communicates opportunities to buy digitaladvertising via electronic bidding to digital ad buying systems, (iii)translates instances of the successful purchase and display of a digitaladvertisement on a non-personal digital device (“plays”) into the numberof individual consumers (“projected impressions”) expected to be exposedto the digital advertisement, for digital ad buying systems, (iv)combines device observations with projected impressions to createimpressions corresponding to exposure of consumers (identified bypersonal electronic device advertising identifiers) to digitaladvertisements, communicates information about the observations(including device-specific advertising identifiers) to the digital adbuying systems or other integrated measurement platforms to enablesubsequent attribution, and/or (v) manages the time difference betweenwhen electronic bidding occurs and when information from deviceobservations is available.

In exemplary embodiments, the inventive system includes at least some ofthe following features: (i) electronic notification(s) to potentialbidders of when an opportunity to play a digital advertisement onnon-personal digital devices is about to come up; (ii) automaticcollection of observation records associated with personal electronicdevices from disparate sources (e.g., external data providers, mobileapps, etc.); (iii) adapted electronic bidding calls to supportone-to-many semantics, including individual impression logging,budgeting, and/or pacing calculations by the digital ad buying systems;(iv) adapted electronic bidding calls to support separating real-timeimpression logging and budget and pacing calculations from receipt ofactual device-specific advertising identifiers; and/or (v) matchinginformation from personal electronic device observations (includingdevice-specific advertising identifiers) with corresponding digitaladvertisement plays, to generate individual advertising impressionsdelivered. These and other features are discussed in more detail herein.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary environment in accordance with theexemplary embodiments of the present invention in which a digitaladvertisement is displayed on a network-connected non-personal digitaldevice 10. The digital advertisement may include digital messages (e.g.,text messages, image messages, video messages, and/or a combinationthereof, to name a few) and/or audio messages played automatically oron-demand on the non-personal digital device 10.

In practice, a digital advertisement is displayed on a monitor 12 of thenon-personal digital device 10. During the time the digitaladvertisement is displayed, various individuals 20-1, 20-2 . . . 20-nmay be passing by the non-personal digital device 10 within a viewinggeometry. Each individual 20-1, 20-2 . . . 20-n may possess one or morepersonal electronic devices 21-1 . . . 21-m, 22-1 . . . 22-m (as shownin FIG. 2), such as mobile phones, tablets, computers, to name a few,through which such individuals may, at some later time, take some action(e.g., a website visit, app download, product purchase, etc.) related tothe product or service promoted in the digital advertisement beingdisplayed. In exemplary embodiments, the digital advertising creativecan include a unique response channel, such as a coupon code, a QR code,unique URL address, a unique call-tracking telephone number, a uniqueSMS short code, a unique social media hashtag, a unique email address,to name a few. A consumer action through such a response channel wouldconstitute a response to the digital advertisement, but is not necessaryin order for the present invention to enable attribution. In variousexemplary embodiments, the methods and systems of the present inventionmay be capable of providing appropriate data to enable “post-view”attribution (as opposed to “post-click” attribution) in which aconsumer's purchase of a product (or some other action) is associatedwith a previously-viewed digital advertisement on a non-personal digitaldevice, without the consumer having to first perform any action indirect response to the digital advertisement.

While FIG. 1 represent the non-personal digital device 10 as an outdoordisplay known as a “Link” unit, other non-personal network-connecteddigital devices and electronic displays in public and semi-publicsettings can also be used in accordance with exemplary embodiments ofthe present invention, such as the digital urban panel shown in FIGS.3A-3C (discussed below). For example, network-connected screens onnon-personal digital devices placed in transit stations and platforms,airports, building lobbies, elevators, on the exteriors or interiors ofmotor vehicles, in retail or commercial locations such as malls, grocerystores, restaurants, movie theaters, and health clubs, on digitalbillboards, digital street signs, and/or digital map/wayfindingdisplays, to name a few.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary configuration of participant systems andplatforms in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention. It will be appreciated that each of the devices, systems andmodules illustrated in FIG. 2 are represented as a single unit, but maybe comprised of one or more units consistent with embodiments of thepresent invention or may be parts of a larger aggregated unit thatperforms multiple functions.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, components of the present invention inaccordance with exemplary embodiments may include a programmatic module,generally designated by reference number 1, made up of a bidding module60, a measurement module 30 and a data collection module 90. Thesecomponents, more fully described below, may be connected either directlyor through a network connection (e.g., the Internet) and interact (alsoeither directly or indirectly via a network connection) with otherdevices, systems and platforms within an operating environment to carryout the various aspects of the present invention. For example, theoperating environment may include a communications service 80, a digitalad buying system 50 (“DSP”), an advertiser ad server 70, an integratedmeasurement platform 40 (optional), and a data provider 100, to name afew. In accordance with the exemplary embodiments, digitaladvertisements may be placed by advertisers using the digital ad buyingsystem 50 through advertiser ad server 70 to be recorded by themeasurement module 30 when displayed by non-personal digital device 10.Although the digital ad buying system 50, integrated measurementplatform 40, and advertiser ad server 70 are shown as separatecomponents, it should be appreciated that these components may bemodules of one or more components, or may be embodied in a singlecomponent having all of the functionality of these components. Althoughthe bidding module 60, measurement module 30 and data collection module90 are shown as separate components, it should be appreciated that thesecomponents may be modules of one or more components, or may be embodiedin a single component having all of the functionality of thesecomponents. Further, it should be appreciated that these components maybe associated with a computer-readable medium coupled to one or moredata processing apparatus having executable instructions stored thereonwhich, when executed by the one or more data processing apparatus, causethe one or more data processing apparatus to perform the processesdescribed herein.

At any given period in time, an individual 20-1 . . . 20-n, who maypossess one or more personal electronic devices 21-1 . . . 21-m, 22-1 .. . 22-n, such as, mobile computers (e.g., laptops, ultrabooks), desktopcomputers, mobile phones, smart phones, tablets, personal displaydevices, personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), gaming consoles and/ordevices, smart vehicles (e.g., cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc.), and/orwearable devices (e.g., watches, pins/broaches, headphones, etc.), toname a few, may take some action (e.g., visit a website, download anapplication, purchase a product, etc.) related to the product or servicepromoted in the digital advertisement being displayed on non-personaldigital device 10. As shown in FIG. 2, the one or more personalelectronic devices 21-1 . . . 21-m are observed personal electronicdevices and the one or more personal electronic devices 22-1 . . . 22-nare a sub-set of the observed personal electronic devices 21-1 . . .21-m on which some action (either in a response to a call-to-action in adigital advertisement or otherwise) is performed related to the productand/or service of the displayed digital advertisement.

In accordance with exemplary embodiments, some such actions may betracked by using a unique response channel (a.k.a. “call-to-action” or“CTA”) embedded within a digital advertisement displayed at thenon-personal digital device 10. A CTA may include one or more of: acoupon code, a QR code, unique URL address, a unique call-trackingtelephone number, a unique SMS short code, a unique social mediahashtag, and/or a unique email address, to name a few. However, aresponse to a call-to-action is not necessary in order for the presentinvention to enable attribution. For example, in other embodiments thedigital ad buying system 50 may be provided with specific information soas to enable the digital ad buying system 50 and/or the integratedmeasurement platform 40 to perform post-view attribution, in which someother event (e.g., an action that is not a direct response to acall-to-action in the digital advertisement) performed on a personalelectronic device that is attributed to an impression record sent by theprogrammatic module 1. Such other event may include, for example, avisit to a web-site associated with the displayed digital advertisement,an online or offline purchase of the advertised product or service,downloading of an app featured in the digital advertisement, orperformance of some other action on the personal electronic device thatis associated with the displayed digital advertisement.

In exemplary embodiments, one or more of the personal electronic devices21-1 . . . 21-m may include a dedicated software application, or aSoftware Development Kit (“SDK”) may be provided to other applications,for supporting the ability to handle requests to a pre-determined URLlink (e.g., “link.to” or “shortlink.com”) associated with acall-to-action. In exemplary embodiments, the pre-determined URL linkmay be displayed directly within the digital advertising creative, orthe link may be delivered to the personal electronic devices 21-1 . . .21-m. The dedicated application or SDK may be registered with URLprefixes corresponding to those populated by the programmatic module 1into the call-to-action field of the digital advertisement. Thededicated application or SDK may also register with the operating systemof one or more personal devices 21-1 . . . 21-m to handle links of theformat “link.to” or “shortlink.com” or some other predetermined URL andto retrieve device-specific advertising identifiers (e.g., IDFA orAAID). In exemplary embodiments, if a consumer performs an action on amobile device that has the dedicated application (or an applicationinstalled with the SDK), before redirecting the mobile device browser tothe final destination site, the device's advertising identifier islooked up and recorded. The recorded advertising identifier may becombined with call-to-action tracking information, and this may be usedto send a tag call to the digital ad buying system 50 and/or integratedmeasurement platform 40. The tag call in turn may be used by the digitalad buying system 50 to generate a click event (referred to as a“physical click”) associated with an observed personal electronic devicewith the same device-specific advertising identifier. This allows thedigital ad buying system 50 or an integrated measurement platform 40 toperform an attribution process where causation of a conversion may beinferred from a physical click or some other action performed by theconsumer after an impression in direct response to the digitaladvertisement.

In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention,call-to-action events may be tracked by the non-personal digital device10 first displaying, for example, a unique quick response (QR) code in adigital advertisement. Once the QR code is displayed, the communicationsservice 80 may provide the measurement module 30 with trackinginformation each time the QR code is scanned. Tracking information, inembodiments, identifies each time a call-to-action event is used (e.g.,a QR code is scanned) by one or more personal electronic devices 21-1 .. . 21-m being operated by an individual 20-1 . . . 20-n. Trackinginformation may include information unique to the one or more personalelectronic devices 21-1 . . . 21-n scanning the QR code.

After a QR code is scanned by one or more personal electronic devices22-1 . . . 22-n, the QR code may be transformed by software of the oneor more personal electronic devices 22-1 . . . 22-n into a web request.The web request may cause the generation of request information. Requestinformation, in embodiments, identifies when a call-to-action event isperformed (e.g., a scanned QR code) by one or more personal electronicdevices 22-1 . . . 22-n. Collecting request information may helpassociate the event with a previously recorded individual impression(i.e. associated with an actual device-specific advertising identifier)using attributes included in the request information, for example: URLrequested, requested IP address, cookies, user-agent, location ofrequest, time of request, source network, and/or other meta dataattached to the web request, to name a few. The measurement module 30may then associate the web request with a previously recorded individualimpression and emulate a browser making a click request to the digitalad buying system 50 and/or integrated measurement platform 40 bytriggering the click tracker associated with the digital advertisingcreative and by including the previously recorded individual impressioninformation as parameters or meta-data on the request. Impressioninformation, in embodiments, may include data specific to an impression,including, a time that the impression was displayed, a location at whichthe impression was displayed, an advertiser associated with theimpression, and/or one or more products being advertised with theimpression, to name a few. In embodiments, the measurement module 30 mayassociate the tracking information with a previously recorded individualimpression using data within the tracking information. The trackinginformation includes data that indicates a unique individual impressionassociated with a time and/or location. Using the tracking informationmay allow the measurement module 30 to associate one or more personalelectronic devices 22-1 . . . 22-n (and the individuals 20-1 . . . 20-noperating the one or more personal electronic devices 22-1 . . . 22-n)with a specific individual impression associated with a time and/orlocation.

In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention,call-to-action events can be tracked by displaying, for example, aunique coupon code in the digital advertisement and then having thecommunications service 80 provide the measurement module 30 withtracking information each time the code is submitted to a website,emailed for a transaction, postal mailed, provided on a phone call,entered into an e-commerce transaction, provided during a retailtransaction, or other redemption, to name a few. The measurement module30 will then associate the tracking information with a previouslyrecorded individual impression (i.e. associated with an actualdevice-specific advertising identifier), and then emulate a browsermaking a click request to the digital ad buying system 50 and/orintegrated measurement platform 40 by triggering the click trackerassociated with the digital advertising creative and by including thepreviously recorded individual impression information as parameters ormeta-data on the request.

In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention,call-to-action events can be tracked by, for example, displaying in thedigital advertisement a custom URL, which can track and redirect thepersonal electronic device to an advertiser URL. In such an embodiment,the process of redirecting from a human-readable short format (e.g.,link.to/advertiser) can be used to determine the event was triggered,and collect request information to help associate the event with apreviously recorded impression. The measurement module 30 will thenassociate the request information with a previously delivered individualimpression (e.g., associated with an actual device-specific advertisingidentifier), and then emulate a browser making a click request to thedigital ad buying system 50 and/or integrated measurement platform 40 bytriggering the click tracker associated with the digital advertisingcreative and by including the previously recorded individual impressioninformation as parameters or meta-data on the request.

In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention,call-to-action events can be tracked by displaying a uniquecall-tracking telephone number in the digital advertisement and thenhaving a communications service 80 provide the measurement module 30with tracking information each time a call is received at thecall-tracking telephone number. The measurement module 30 will thenassociate the tracking information with a previously deliveredindividual impression (e.g., associated with an actual device-specificadvertising identifier), and then emulate a browser making a clickrequest to the digital ad buying system 50 and/or integrated measurementplatform 40 by triggering the click tracker associated with the digitaladvertising creative and by including the previously recorded individualimpression information as parameters or meta-data on the request.Additional information, such as, for example, referring number, callduration, automated menu selections, call quality score, or othercampaign specific information, to name a few, may also be collected.

In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention,call-to-action events can be tracked by displaying a unique SMS numberor short code in the digital advertisement and then having thecommunications service 80 provide the measurement module 30 withtracking information each time an SMS message is received using thenumber or short code associated with the digital advertisement. Themeasurement module 30 will then associate the tracking information witha previously delivered individual impression (e.g., associated with anactual device-specific advertising identifier), and then emulate abrowser making a click request to the digital ad buying system 50 and/orintegrated measurement platform 40 by triggering the click trackerassociated with the digital advertising creative and by including thepreviously recorded individual impression information as parameters ormeta-data on the request. In embodiments, other forms of messaging suchas MMS, or messenger apps can be used in lieu of SMS message. Additionalinformation, such as, for example, per-campaign keywords or othercampaign specific information may also be collected.

In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention,call-to-action events can be tracked by displaying a unique social mediahashtag (e.g., # promoteadvertisercampaign) in the digital advertisementand then having the communications service 80 provide the measurementmodule 30 with tracking information each time the hashtag is posted insocial media. The measurement module 30 will then associate the trackinginformation with a previously delivered individual impression (e.g.,associated with an actual device-specific advertising identifier), andthen emulate a browser making a click request to the digital ad buyingsystem 50 and/or integrated measurement platform 40 by triggering theclick tracker associated with the digital advertising creative and byincluding the previously recorded individual impression information asparameters or meta-data on the request. Exemplary social media systemsinclude Facebook®, Instagram®, Twitter®, Snapchat®, and/or LinkedIn®, toname a few. Additional information such as, for example, social mediaprofile usernames, post engagement activity (e.g., likes, shares, etc.)or other campaign specific information may also be collected.

In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention,call-to-action events can be tracked by displaying a unique emailaddress in the digital advertisement and then having the communicationsservice 80 provide the measurement module 30 with tracking informationeach time such email address receives an email associated with thedigital advertisement. The measurement module 30 will then associate thetracking information with a previously delivered individual impression(e.g., associated with an actual device-specific advertisingidentifier), and then emulate a browser making a click request to thedigital ad buying system 50 and/or integrated measurement platform 40 bytriggering the click tracker associated with the digital advertisingcreative and by including the previously recorded individual impressioninformation as parameters or meta-data on the request. Additionalinformation, such as, for example, email address, subject line, or othercampaign specific information may also be collected.

In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention,call-to-action events can be tracked using other information that can beused to link the event to a previously recorded individual impression(e.g., associated with an actual device-specific advertisingidentifier). Such other information may include, for example, date ofthe call-to-action, time of the call-to-action, a digital advertisingcampaign associated with the call-to-action and a keyword associatedwith the call-to-action, to name a few.

In exemplary embodiments, the bidding module 60 is connected eitherdirectly or indirectly through a network (e.g., the Internet) to a datacollection module 90. The data collection module 90 may be configured tocollect observation data associated with the one or more personalelectronic devices 21-1 . . . 21-m, 22-1 . . . 22-n. The observationdata may include a device-specific advertising identifier that includesat least one of mobile advertising IDs (e.g., IDFAs, Android IDs, toname a few), browser cookies, or e-mail addresses or hashed equivalents,to name a few. The observation data may further include location data,such as, for example, latitude/longitude, Geohash, or other positionalcoordinates collected from the device signals, to name a few. In thisregard, the data collection module 90 may be connected either directlyor indirectly through a network (e.g., the Internet) to a data provider100 that provides some or all of the observation data in the form of,for example, real-time network usage data, sensor-collected sightings,application-derived user location data, or purchased third-partylocation data, to name a few. The observation data may further include atimestamp that indicates the exact time the observation occurred.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C show front, cross section, and top views,respectively, of an exemplary non-personal digital device 10 that can beused in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention.As illustrated in FIGS. 3A-3C, non-personal digital device 10 includes amonitor 12 electrically connected to LCD 302 (liquid crystal display) onwhich the digital advertisement may be displayed. The LCD 302, is usedin an exemplary manner, and other types of display circuitry may beused, for example, cathode ray tube (CRT), light emitting diodes (LED),e-paper and organic light emitting diodes (OLED), to name a few. Inembodiments, monitor 12 may be a touch screen, allowing one or moreindividuals 20-1, 20-2 . . . 20-n to interact with the non-personaldigital device 10. Monitor 12, in embodiments, may include a resistivetouch screen, a capacitive touch screen, a surface acoustic wave touchscreen, an infrared touch screen, an optical imaging touch screen, or anacoustic pulse recognition touch screen, to name a few.

The non-personal digital device 10 may also include a networkconnection, such as network switch 308, antenna (which may be located inthe antenna compartment 312 and/or accessible via the fiber knockout314) as shown in FIGS. 3B and 3C, by way of example. Other types ofnetwork connections such as cellular modems using GPRS, EDGE, 3G, 4GLTE, low power LTE, Ethernet, token-ring, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, Bluetooth®,ZigBee, fixed-point wireless, mesh networks, GSM, GSM-R, UMTS, TD-LTE,LTE, LTE-Advanced Pro, LTE Advanced, Gigabit LTE, CDMA, iDEN, MVNO,MVNE, Satellite, TETRA, WiMAX, AMPS TDMA, Roaming SIM, DC-HSPA, HSPA,HSPA+, HSDPA, G, 2G, 3.5G, 4G, 4.5G, 5G, 5.5G, 6G, 6.5G, GNSS, EV-DO,1×RTT, WCDMA, TDS-CDMA, CDMA2000, CSFB, FDMA, OFDMA, PDMA, AMPS, EV-DO,DECT, IS-95, NMT, UMTS, MPLS, MOCA, Broadband over Power Lines, NB-IoT,enhanced MTC (eMTC), LTE-WLAN, ISDN, Microwave, Long Range Wifi, Pointto Point Wifi, EC-GSM-IoT, LTE-M, NB-IoT, Evolved Multicast BroadcastMultimedia Service (eMBMS) and LTE-Broadcast (LTE-B), or other datatransmission technologies, to name a few, may also be used in accordancewith exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

In exemplary embodiments, the non-personal digital device 10 may offerother features such as an interactive screen or a display ofnon-advertising information, to name a few. In embodiments where thenon-personal digital device 10 includes a touch screen, tablet or otherconsumer-operated interactive capability, an event can also be trackedand linked to an individual impression when a consumer takes some action(e.g., purchasing a product) via an interactive capability on thenon-personal digital device 10 and the non-personal digital device 10sends a message to the measurement module 30 registering the event.

By way of example, the non-personal digital device 10 may furtherinclude, service CPU 304, CPU 306, and power supply 310. The service CPU304 may allow an individual or the non-personal digital device 10manufacturer to fix or troubleshoot the non-personal digital device 10.The CPU 306 may include an operating system or other software thatprovides executable display instructions to the operatively connectedLCD 302. The service CPU 304 and CPU 306 may include: one or moreprocessors, memory circuitry (including RAM and/or ROM), a display(which may be similar to LCD 302), communications circuitry, inputcircuitry, and/or output circuitry, to name a few. The components of thenon-personal digital device 10 (e.g., monitor 12, network switch 302,service CPU 304, CPU 306, etc.) may be electronically and/or operativelyconnected to the power supply 310 (which may be accessible via the fiberknockout 316).

FIG. 4 illustrates a conceptual flow in accordance with exemplaryembodiments of the present invention. In particular, FIG. 4 illustratesan exemplary process flow in accordance with exemplary embodiments ofthe present invention, involving digital ad buying systems 50-1-50-N,integrated measurement platforms 40-1-40-N, bidding module 60,non-personal digital device(s) 10, data collection module 90 and/orpersonal electronic devices 21-1 . . . 21-m, 22-1 . . . 22-n, to name afew. Exemplary interaction among these devices will now be discussed.

In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention, theprocess begins with a step S402, where the bidding module 60 receives,from a non-personal digital device 10, an indication of the availabilityof an advertisement display opportunity (e.g., an “ad slot”) onnon-personal digital device 10 for a digital advertisement. Theindication of availability, in embodiments, may include advertisementslot information. Advertisement slot information may include, forexample, the location of the non-personal digital device 10 and/or thetime slot available for an advertisement to be displayed on thenon-personal digital device 10. For purposes of illustration, theprocess will be described assuming a single non-personal digital device(e.g., non-personal digital device 10), but it can be readilyappreciated by those skilled in the art, that the same process may workwith the same digital advertisement or other digital advertisementsbeing displayed on a plurality of non-personal digital devices,associated with the same or different owners or operators.

The bidding module 60, in step S403, may then call for bids from one ormore (N) digital ad buying systems 50-1-50-N. In this regard, thebidding module 60 may include a bid generator module 62 which may beconfigured to perform one or more of the following operations: (i)estimate the projected number of consumers who may be exposed to anadvertisement, and use that estimated number to generate an “impressionestimate” (X); and (ii) generate one or more (Y) bid requests in theappropriate format for each of the N digital ad buying systems. Theestimation of the projected number of consumers may be obtained based ondata from rating agencies (e.g., Geopath®, Nielsen®, and/or Route®, toname a few), network connections, proprietary sensors, analysis ofcamera or other sensor data, observation data, and/or mobileapplications, to name a few. In an exemplary embodiment, an estimate ofa number of impressions may be obtained in accordance with a processwhere data is combined, including (i) selecting the most accurateestimate for a particular non-personal digital device 10, and (ii)adjusting this most accurate estimate to account for situational factorsincluding but not limited to time of day, day of week, seasonalityand/or observational data skew, with the ability to configure and toggleboth inputs to the adjustment process, as well as which sources/factorsare considered for adjustment.

The bidding module 60 may adapt the non-personal digital device 10 tobid and/or display one or more digital advertising formats. In thisregard, the bid generator module 62 may include computer code associatedwith instructions for one or more processors to identify thecapabilities of the calling non-personal digital device, where suchcapabilities may relate to, for example, screen resolution, displaysize, video support, computational capacity, audio capabilities, and/orzoning restrictions, to name a few. In this regard, the bid generatormodule 62 may generate and/or display a graphical user interface thatenables input of capability parameters associated with the callingnon-personal digital device and/or may include a detection algorithmconfigured to automatically detect the capability parameters (e.g., byobtaining feedback from test creatives played at the callingnon-personal digital device). The bid generator module 62 may thentranslate the list of display capabilities into the list of digitalformats that can be successfully displayed given the capabilities of thenon-personal digital device 10 (e.g., custom ad units, IAB standard adunits (e.g., 728×90, 300×250, etc.), VAST video, device representations(e.g., browser/mobile OS, audio and video support, etc.), and/orwebsite/app identifiers (domain URL, mobile app store ID, etc.), to namea few). This translation may be performed either through directtransformation or through composition with other elements (e.g., visibleelements of the digital advertisement creative, dynamic content, etc.).The list of available digital formats is then cross-referenced againstthe digital formats supported by each of the N digital ad buying systems50-1-50-N. The combined list of digital formats is used to generate theY bid requests sent to each of the N digital ad buying systems50-1-50-N. A creative received from an buying system on behalf of awinning advertiser may be adapted by making appropriate changes to thedisplay characteristics, such as, for example, sizing, resolution, colorpalette, frame rate, and sampling rate, to name a few, and/or by addingcontent overlaid, adjacent-to and/or surrounding the advertisement tomatch the size and aspect ratio of the non-personal digital device 10.

Examples of “custom ad units” or device-specific ad unit formats mayinclude non-IAB standard dimensions that may be more common onnon-personal digital devices, such as 1024×768, 1920×1080, 1080×1920,720×1280, and 3840×2160, to name a few. Other format details mayinclude, for example, aspect ratio and/or diagonal size of thenon-personal digital device.

Examples of IAB standard ad units include those that have been outlinedby the Interactive Advertising Bureau (JAB) in their Display & MobileAdvertising Creative Format Guidelines. Specific examples include mediumrectangle (300×250), wide skyscrape (160×600), leaderboard (728×90), andhalf page (300×600), to name a few.

VAST video is the digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST), another IABstandard specification that details the transmission of videoadvertising along with tracking instructions to measure completion ratesand interaction with either the video or the video player.

Examples of device representations include operating system (e.g.Windows, Chrome, Android, iOS, etc.), browser (e.g. Internet Explorer,Chrome, Safari), and corresponding build and version numbers. Devicerepresentation may also include details regarding enabled or disabledattributes of the digital devices, such as audio and video or specificsupported file formats (e.g., .wav, .mp3, .mp4, Adobe Flash, .png, .gif,.jpg), to name a few.

Examples of website/application identifiers include domain URLs, IABcategory IDs, mobile application store app IDs, and/or mobileapplication build or version numbers, to name a few.

The bid communication module 64 of the bidding module 60 may beconfigured to send to each of the N digital ad buying systems 50-1-50-nY bid requests, with each of the Y bid requests including the impressionestimate X. Each of the Y bid requests may further include a singleproxy-ID as a virtual identifier associated with one or morenon-personal digital devices (e.g., non-personal digital device 10)potentially viewed by a unique group of consumers to allow the digitalad buying systems 50-1-50-n to perform frequency capping and preventover-exposure of that group of consumers to a particular digitaladvertising campaign and/or creative. The bid communication module 64may send the Y bid requests via a network (e.g., the Internet).

In step S405, the bid communication module 64 may receive bid responses.The bid communication module 64 may be configured to receive from eachof the N digital ad buying systems 50-1-50-n, one or more (Z) bids,contained in Y responses to the above Y bid requests (it should beappreciated that “X”, “Y” and “Z” as used herein are integers). Each ofthe Z bids may contain bid information data such as, for example,pricing the digital ad buying system is willing to pay per impression(which will be the same price for all X impressions represented in agiven bid response) and digital ad buying system impression data such asunique auction identifiers or impression records to support registeringup to X impressions in the digital ad buying system 50. Digital adbuying system information, in embodiments, allows the bidding module 60to identify the entity bidding for the digital advertisement slot. Thedigital ad buying system information may include, for example, a nameassociated with an account of a bidder, a name associated with thebidder, a series of numbers identifying a specific bidder, and/orletters identifying a specific bidder.

The bid selection module 66 of the bidding module 60 may be configuredto select from the one or more bid responses (N×Y×Z) a winning bidresponse, associated with a digital ad buying system, that meets winningbid criteria. Winning bid criteria may include, for example, a highestprice bid, campaign pacing, campaign fulfillment thresholds, publisherfrequency limits, publisher advertiser whitelists/blacklists, andcontent relevance, to name a few. In this regard, before applying thewinning bid criteria, the bid selection module 66 may filter the bidsbased on one or more filtering criteria, such as, for example, whetherthe bid meets minimum pricing requirements, whether the digitaladvertising creative associated with the bid has been reviewed andapproved for display, and/or whether the bid matches any relevantprivate deals, if applicable.

In step S407, the bidding communication module 64 sends a winning bidnotification. The bid communication module 64 may be configured tonotify a winner of the auction, adapting the notification to correctlyaccount for multiple individual viewers of the digital advertisement bygenerating and/or appending placeholder advertising identifiers to eachimpression notification. This operation may be performed to account forthe fact that the winning bid is not associated with a one-to-one bidrequest-to-bid response ratio, but instead is associated with onewinning bid corresponding to more than one impression record (in thiscase, the X impression estimate). In this regard, the bid communicationmodule 64 may store, from the winning bid contained in an associateddigital ad buying system's modified bid response, X sets of digital adbuying impression data provided by the winning digital ad buying systemnecessary to generate X distinct won impressions after receiving aninitial win notification. The bid communication module 64 may beconfigured to then construct X notifications to communicate thepurchased inventory through existing recording mechanisms in the digitalad buying system 50. The X notifications may then be sent by the bidcommunication module 64 to the winning digital ad buying system'snotification Application Program Interface (“API”).

After sending notification of a winning bid, in embodiments. the biddingmodule 60, in step S409, retrieves the digital advertising creative (forexample, from an ad server), or an identifier of a previously registereddigital advertising creative, for display at the non-personal digitaldevice 10. A digital advertising creative, for example, may be thedigital advertisement the winning advertiser chooses to display on themonitor 12 of the non-personal digital device 10. In embodiments, thedigital advertising creative may include a call-to-action item embeddedwithin the digital advertisement. The digital advertising creative ofthe winning advertiser from the winning digital ad buying system maythen be electronically displayed at the non-personal digital device 10.In this regard, the non-personal digital device 10 may be configured toformat the received digital creative to optimize the size and locationof the digital advertising creative on the non-personal digital device10. Any digital ad buying system or integrated measurement platform tagsin the digital advertising creative, such as click trackers, action tagsand view tags, may be extracted. The non-personal digital device 10 maybe configured to display a consumer-executable call-to-action which canbe performed on any one of the personal electronic devices 22-1-22-n.Examples of such electronic action items may include a coupon code, a QRcode, unique URL address, a unique call-tracking telephone number, aunique SMS short code, a unique social media hashtag, a unique emailaddress, to name a few. Appropriate design elements or content may becombined with the digital advertisement creative on the non-personaldigital device 10 to form a complete user experience.

In exemplary embodiments, the platform 1 may be configured to renderpixels associated with a digital advertisement creative prior totransmitting to the non-personal digital device 10 (as opposed to thenon-personal digital device 10 itself rendering the pixels). This allowsfor implementation of an “override” process that allows operators of thesystem (e.g., Advertising Operations groups) to choose to use a dynamicdigital advertisement (e.g., JavaScript) after undergoing a reviewprocess, which can involve, for example, automatic code analysis,security scan-type heuristics, and/or manual inspection/review of code,to name a few.

As illustrated by the timing diagram shown in FIGS. 6A-6F (to beexplained in further detail below), in exemplary embodiments, “Ad Slots”may be electronically analyzed to determine which digital ad formats canbe satisfied by the capability of the non-personal digital device 10.For each of the X digital ad buying systems 50-1-50-N (as shown in FIG.4), these opportunities will then be translated into Y “BidRequests” foreach format a digital ad buying system is capable of consuming. Eachdigital ad buying system returns one or more responses for each format.Responses are gathered together and then filtered against anyrestrictions, such as, for example publisher restrictions, pricingrestrictions, content restrictions, legal restrictions and industryrestrictions, to name a few, and a winning bid is selected, for example,based on the highest price bid. The digital advertising creativeassociated with the winning bid is returned to the display 12, and thenumber of winning notifications (“Win Notification 1, Win Notification2, and Win Notification 3” in FIG. 6E) associated with the impressionestimate (“imp_x” in FIGS. 6A-6F) for that Ad Slot is sent to thewinning digital ad buying system 50. For example, since the impressionestimate is three (“imp_x=3”) in the example shown in FIG. 6E, three winnotifications are sent out to map to budgeting and pacing concepts ofthe winning digital ad buying system 50.

Referring back to FIG. 4, in accordance with exemplary embodiments,digital advertising plays on non-personal digital devices are translatedinto “impressions” associated with device-specific advertisingidentifiers, thereby enabling advertising operations such as, forexample, same-device attribution, cross-device attribution, reach and/orfrequency analysis, audience analytics, performance optimization, and/orforecasting, to name a few. In this regard, the data collection module90 may be configured to collect observation data that may include dataassociated with one or more personal electronic devices 21-1 . . . 21-m,22-1 . . . 22-n and/or store the aforementioned observation data in adatabase 92. The observation data may include, for example: (i) adevice-specific advertising identifier (such as mobile advertising IDs(e.g., IDFAs, Android IDs), browser cookies, and/or e-mail addresses orhashed equivalents, to name a few); (ii) location informationrepresented as latitude/longitude, Geohash, and/or other positionalcoordinates collected from device signals, (e.g., real-time networkusage data, sensor-collected sightings, application-derived userlocation data, and/or purchased 3rd-party location data, to name a few),to name a few; and/or (iii) a timestamp indicating a time theobservation occurred. Some or all of the observation data may beobtained from one or more data provider(s) 100, which may include, forexample, a cell phone service provider, a mobile application publisher,and/or some other third-party system that provides such data, to name afew.

In embodiments, the observation data filtering module 94 of the datacollection module 90 may be configured to filter the observation data todetermine the “actionable” observations corresponding to viewers whowere within a viewing geometry of the non-personal digital device 10during a time in which the advertisement was displayed by thenon-personal digital device 10. This filtering process may filter out“unactionable” observations corresponding to individuals who were notwithin a viewing geometry of the non-personal digital device 10 during atime in which the advertisement was displayed by the non-personaldigital device 10.

At step S411, the notification module 96 of the data collection module90 may send a notification of billable impressions to the winning bidder(e.g., one of the digital ad buying systems 50-1-50-N). The notificationmodule 96 of the data collection module 90 may be configured to notifythe winning digital ad buying system of the billable impressions. Inthis regard, the notification module 96 may be configured to substituteeach of the placeholder advertising identifiers that were communicatedin the won impression notification at auction time to the winningdigital ad buying system, with a corresponding one of the one or morecollected actual device-specific advertising identifiers obtained fromthe actionable observations, corresponding to one or more personalelectronic devices 22-1-22-m owned by and/or associated with viewers ofthe digital advertisement. This substitution enables the digital adbuying system 50, and/or integrated measurement platform 40, to performattribution of the impression to subsequent actions taken by that viewer(such as visiting a website, downloading an app, and/or purchasing aproduct, to name a few). This substitution may occur in real-time (e.g.,within a predetermined number of seconds, within a predetermined numberof milliseconds, etc.) or may occur on a configurable time lag (e.g., apredetermined amount of time). In the event that the digitaladvertisement creative includes additional tracking associated with theoptional integrated measurement platform 40, in step S412, inembodiments, the notification module 96 of the data collection module 90may send the same notifications with one or more collected actualdevice-specific advertising identifiers to the integrated measurementplatform 40 to enable attribution of the impression to subsequentactions taken by that viewer. This substitution may occur in real-time,on a configurable time lag, and/or as a batch communication on aconfigurable time lag (as shown in connection with FIG. 6I).

In exemplary embodiments, the bidding module 60 may be configured tosupport ingestion and/or normalization of one or more variousobservations. For example, the bidding module 60 may include anapplication programming interface (API) that is configured to allow forcollection of data in various formats from various types of dataproviders. The bidding module 60 may be configured to normalize theobservation data into a standardized format and/or eliminate invaliddata, which may include, for example, data provided in an invalid format(e.g., missing advertising identifiers, location information, and/orother essential fields, to name a few), data provided after expirationof a published expiration window (e.g., a predetermined amount of time),data provided with insufficient fidelity or accuracy (e.g., horizontaland/or vertical accuracy), data provided which was likely interpolatedfrom a lower-resolution data-source (e.g., DMA, zip-code, city, and/orregion location), data provided which exhibits irregularities indistribution (e.g., overly uniform distributions, repeated values innon-high-population spots, and/or values whose path of travel wouldindicate an excessive speed), and/or duplicated data, to name a few.

In exemplary embodiments, the bidding module 60 may be configured toallow digital ad buying systems 50-1-50-N to perform frequency cappingand/or prevent over-exposure of viewers to a particular digitaladvertising campaigns and/or digital advertising creatives. In thisregard, the bidding module 60 may be configured to create a proxy-IDassociated with one or more non-personal digital devices potentiallyviewed by a unique group of consumers, send that proxy-ID as a virtualidentifier on each bid request, and rotate the proxy-ID over time. Inembodiments, the proxy-ID may be rotated periodically at configurabletime intervals and/or may be rotated based on data indicating that theaudience has changed (e.g., observed personal electronic device dataand/or computer vision analysis data). Specifically, if the digital adbuying system 50-1-50-N detects the same proxy-ID in a bid request asthat provided in a previously won auction, the digital ad buying systemmay choose to not respond to the bid request and/or limit theirresponses to ensure that the same group of consumers are not exposed tothe same digital advertising campaign and/or digital advertisingcreative.

In exemplary embodiments, the bidding module 60 may be configured toprotect user privacy by separating communication of device-specificadvertising identifiers from the bidding process, and/or only conveydevice-specific advertising identifiers to the winning bidder after theauction is complete. In embodiments, personal electronic deviceadvertising identifiers may not be sent in the initial bid request.Potential bidders in the auction, in embodiments, may instead be sent asingle proxy-ID in the bid requests, which may allow for frequencycapping and/or prevent the targeting of digital advertisements tospecific consumers on the basis of their actual personal electronicdevice advertising identifier and/or information known to be associatedwith that device identifier (a practice known as “personalizedadvertising” “interest based advertising” or “retargeting”), andprevents other auction participants (besides the winning digital adbuying system 50 and corresponding advertiser) from gaining access tothe device-specific advertising identifiers associated with exposedconsumers. In exemplary embodiments, information known to be associatedwith device-specific advertising identifiers may include, for example,demographic data (e.g., gender, age, education, income, etc.), websitebrowsing history, mobile application usage, location-history, financialcredit activity, and online shopping activity, to name a few.

In exemplary embodiments, the bidding module 60 may be configured toallow publishers (e.g., an operator of non-personal digital device 10)to ensure digital advertising creatives are reviewed prior to display,and/or to prevent alterations of the digital advertising creatives afterreview. In this regard, the bidding module 60 may ensure digital adbuying system bids are valid for the non-personal digital devices of aparticular publisher only if bids correspond to digital advertisingcreatives previously reviewed and approved by such publisher. Forexample, if a bid contains a digital advertising creative that waspreviously approved by a given publisher, it may be a “valid” bid andeligible to participate in auction(s) for advertisements on thenon-personal digital devices of that publisher. If, continuing theexample, a bid contains a creative that was previously rejected by agiven publisher, it may be an “invalid” bid and removed fromconsideration for auction(s) for advertisements on the non-personaldigital devices of that publisher. If, continuing the example, a bidcontains a digital advertising creative with non-reviewed or unknownstatus with respect to a given publisher, it may be an “invalid” bid andremoved from consideration for auction(s) for advertisements on thenon-personal digital devices of that publisher. Exemplary tools tosupport publisher review of digital advertising creatives and managementof queues of digital advertising creatives to review may be configuredto: (i) identify non-reviewed creatives by providing an API, allowingdigital ad buying systems 50-1-50-N to submit new digital advertisingcreatives for review, and the inventive system to flag as “invalid”those bids with digital advertising creatives that are non-reviewed orhave unknown status to identify digital advertising creatives needingreview (either via pre-approval process or directly from bids in realtime) by operators of the inventive system and/or publisheradministrators; (ii) prevent external parties from changing creativespost review by “rasterizing” the digital advertisement creative markup(e.g., HTML, Flash or other dynamic content) into image or videorepresentations at the time of review (including the insertion of acall-to-action); (iii) support dynamic content (e.g., executable code)by allowing automated review of code for security, dependencies,function and intent, allowing operators of the inventive system toextract and control a specific version of a dynamic digital advertisingcreative to approve its use and display; (iv) support publisheradministrators to review the subsequent “rasterization” of the digitaladvertising creative for subjective and objective criteria (e.g.,accuracy of meta-data (e.g., subject matter, brand references, size,etc.), visual quality (alignment, color-balance, text sharpness, visualartifacts, frame-rate, etc.), compliance with content guidelines (e.g.,images, motion, text, nudity, alcohol or drug references, etc.),compliance with technical capabilities, identification of “clickthrough”or landing-page content from the original digital advertising creative,to name a few. The bidding module 60 may include an API configured tocommunicate an approval status to one or more digital ad buying systems50-1 . . . 50-N.

In exemplary embodiments, the bidding module 60 may be configured toinclude adaptations to allow for continued operation of embedded ad tagsin digital advertising creatives, such as impression trackers, clicktrackers, measurement code, or other ad tags. In this regard, thebidding module 60 may include configurable options to allow for: (i)ignoring embedded tags; (ii) simulating standard device handling ofembedded tags; (iii) extracting embedded tags, and storing these forfuture replay through a “virtual browser” layer emulating a web-browserdisplaying content (e.g., navigating references in embedded trackingcode, to resolve “daisy-chained” or additional tags invoked by theembedded tag); (iv) extracting transaction information from the bidrequest; (v) building a tracker request by inserting transactioninformation into the extracted tag; and/or (vi) executing modifiedembedded tag code from a “virtual browser” or “virtual device” totrigger the recording in third-party systems (e.g., ad servers,integrated measurement platforms, verification platforms, to name afew). For example, in regards to triggering the recording of impressionsin third-party systems, such as the advertiser ad server 70, the biddingmodule 60 may extract tags from the digital advertisement creatives forrecording delivery of digital advertisement creatives. For eachindividual impression determined from the observation data, the biddingmodule 60 may trigger the extracted tags to create records for eachindividual impression in third-party systems (e.g., the advertiser adserver 70 and/or the integrated measurement platform 40) in addition tothe digital ad buying system 50. In exemplary embodiments, embedded tagsmay be parsed out of the digital advertising creative returned from thedigital ad buying system 50 by analyzing ad metadata (e.g., VAST videofiles) or applying pattern matching (e.g., prefix matching, regularexpressions) against digital advertisement code to identify known adtags. The extracted ad tags may be triggered one or more times for eachof the determined individual impressions. In this regard, the ad tagsmay be triggered from a “virtual browser environment” populated withequivalent information to the bid response, such as, for example, an IPaddress reflecting the location of the browser, a user-agent reflectingthe type of personal electronic device, and/or custom parameters if theprogrammatic module 1 allows passing in advertising identifiers and/orother bid information and/or macros. The triggering of ad tags maypopulate an impression record in the third-party system (e.g., in theintegrated measurement platform 40).

In exemplary embodiments, the measurement module 30 may be configured todynamically link actions performed on personal electronic devices22-1-22-n in direct response to a call-to-action embedded in the digitaladvertisements with tracking in the digital ad buying system 50 and/orintegrated measurement platform 40. Physical clicks (defined here ascall-to-action responses performed by exposed consumers on personalelectronic devices) generated by the bidding module 60 may be identifiedusing a timestamp and/or device-specific advertising identifier (e.g.,Apple® IDFA, Google® AAID/GAID, Microsoft® MSAID, etc.) or byreferencing a previous auction or impression notification linked with apreviously collected device-specific advertising identifier. Inembodiments, in order to achieve such dynamic linking, the measurementmodule 30 may be configured to: (i) receive the call-to-action (CTA)from a viewer's personal electronic device when performing the action inquestion, (ii) retrieve the associated auction information by matchingagainst attributes of the CTA (e.g., device-specific advertisingidentifier, date/time, location, campaign association, and/or keyword,to name a few), (iii) append the auction identifier and device-specificadvertising identifier information to a click-tracker extracted from thedigital advertisement, and (iv) map the CTA to the click-tracker (e.g.,trigger the tag to ensure tracking of the “physical click” action by thedigital ad buying system 50). Click events may be translated into aformat to fit existing measurement APIs for digital ad buying systems50-1-50-N or integrated measurement platforms 40, using a variety oftechniques including, but not limited to: (i) emulating web browserdevices to create “virtual sessions”; (ii) emulating mobile applicationadvertising SDKs; and/or (iii) formatting messages to match existingpublished APIs, to name a few. This would then enable the winning DSP 50and/or integrated measurement platform 40 to perform post-clickattribution.

In exemplary embodiments, the measurement module 30 may be configured toconnect impressions delivered on non-personal digital device 10 withtracking by the digital ad buying system 50 and/or the integratedmeasurement platform 40, with actions taken by consumers exposed tothose impressions, independent of whether there is a correspondingphysical click. In this regard, impressions generated by the biddingmodule 60 may be identified using a timestamp, a device-specificadvertising identifier (e.g., Apple® IDFA, Google® AAID/GAID, Microsoft®MSAID, etc.), and additional information required to associate that adexposure with a specific ad campaign or creative (e.g., auction ID,campaign ID, digital advertising creative ID). Impression events (e.g.,notifications) may be delivered to the digital ad buying system 50and/or integrated measurement platform 40 within a timeframe allowingthem to be associated with other events (e.g., online and offlineconversion events, such as, for example, website landing page visits,conversion funnel completion, newsletter subscriptions, eventregistrations, shopping cart checkout, and offline purchases, to name afew) recorded by the digital ad buying system 50 and/or integratedmeasurement platform 40. These steps would allow for the winning digitalad buying system 50 and/or integrated measurement platform 40 to performpost-view attribution.

In exemplary embodiments, the bidding module 60 may be configured toallow for the classification of the digital ad display environment bystandard digital classification systems, for example, in cases wheredigital advertising creatives are displayed in the context of othercontent, such as weather, time, and/or local information, to name a few.In this regard, URL-based content identification may be achieved by: (i)identifying non-personal digital devices using a standard webpage URLscheme; (ii) mapping the URL scheme to a “proxy-page” containingrepresentative content that can be accessed by automated programs(commonly referred to as “spiders” or “crawlers”) to analyze theircontents; (iii) populating the “proxy-pages” with content correspondingto characteristics of additional content displayed alongside advertisingand/or attributes of the surrounding physical environment; and/or (iv)allowing a content analysis service to use the content provided viaproxy-web page to produce a relevant classification, corresponding tostandard elements. Mobile application content identification may beachieved by: (i) identifying non-personal digital devices using astandard application identifier; (ii) creating a “virtual container” forrendering of mobile device targeted ad formats; and/or (iii) creating anAPI to emulate the information retrievable from a mobile applicationaround canvas, size, viewable areas, user interactions, to name a few.

In exemplary embodiments, the bidding module 60 may also be configuredto allow for the classification of the non-personal digital devices bynovel classification systems (for example, that classify on the basis ofthe physical surroundings of the non-personal digital device). Novelclassification systems may include (i) categorizing non-personal digitaldevices into location-informed physical contextual categories, (ii)mapping non-personal digital devices to audience segments (e.g.,demographic, behavioral, intent-based) that may frequent the locationsof the non-personal digital devices, to name a few. Examples of physicalcontextual categories could include groups of non-personal digitaldevices located near retail businesses, recreational outdoor locations,and/or office buildings, to name a few. Examples of possible audiencesegments would include 18-25 year old males, fitness enthusiasts,business travelers, and/or in-market automobile shoppers, to name a few.The bidding module 60 could be configured to include data regardingeither physical contextual categories and/or audience segments in bidrequests either as new custom parameters and/or as part of a negotiatedprivate deal.

FIGS. 5A-5E are block diagrams showing interactions between theprogrammatic module 1 and other components within an operatingenvironment in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention. Referring to FIG. 5A, in exemplary embodiments, the datacollection module 90 may be configured to collect data from dataprovider(s) 100. In embodiments, data provider(s) 100 may includereal-time observation data sources 501 and/or device mapping datasources 503, to name a few.

As shown in FIG. 5B, the real-time observation data source(s) 501 mayinclude real-time network usage data module 501A, owned and operatedmobile application user location data module 501B, RTB ad bids module501C, and/or purchased data module 501D, to name a few. Collectively orindividually, one or more of these modules may obtain real-timeobservation data from, for example, real-time network usage data, ownedand operated mobile application user location data, RTB bid requests,purchased data, mobile apps, carrier data, and WiFi data, to name a few.

As shown in FIG. 5C, real-time observation data may also be inferredfrom combining data sets indicating device location with “device mappingdata” translating other identifiers (e.g., sessions, broadcast ids,etc.) to personal electronic device advertising identifiers. The devicemapping data provided by the device mapping data source(s) 503 may beobtained from, for example, WiFi signup data via the WiFi signup datamodule 503A, owned and operated mobile application signup data via theapplication signup data module 503B, application SDKs via the mobileapplication SDK module 503C, and/or major application vendors (e.g.,Foursquare®, etc.) via the major application vendor module 503D, to namea few. Real-time observation data may also be post-processed to cleanse,filter, and/or correct data. Statistical and/or geospatial analysistechniques may also be used to interpolate and/or extrapolate additionalobservation data points based on the provided observation data.

Turning back to FIG. 5A, in exemplary embodiments, the data collectionmodule 90 may be configured to send the collected data through datapipelines and processing 505 to the bidding module 60. In embodiments,the data received by bidding module 60 is considered an observation.Referring to FIG. 5D, bidding module 60 may also be configured tointeract with network connected non-personal digital device 10, digitalad buying system 50, and/or measurement module 30, to name a few.Bidding module 60 may further include auction module 60A and creativeapproval module 60B, to name a few, as shown in FIG. 5D. In embodiments,auction module 60A may send bid requests, winning bid notificationsand/or billing notifications to the digital ad buying system 50, and/orreceive bid responses from the digital ad buying system 50. Inembodiments, creative approval module 60B may obtain digital advertisingcreatives from the digital ad buying system 50 and/or approve thedigital advertising creatives for display by the network connectednon-personal digital device 10.

Network connected non-personal digital device 10 may display content inthe form of a playlist 10D. The playlist 10D may be generated based ondirect-sold data 10A, house content data 10B, and/or data generated by aprogrammatic creative module 10C, to name a few. The direct-sold data10A may include data from outside sources, such as companies partneringwith the operator of the non-personal digital display 10, where suchdata is used to display content as desired by the outside sources. Thehouse content data 10B may include data associated with content fordisplay on the non-personal digital device 10 that is sourced directlyfrom the operator of the non-personal digital display 10. Theprogrammatic creative module 10C is configured to receive the approveddigital advertisement content from the bidding module 60. Thenon-personal digital device 10 may then display the digitaladvertisement creative in combination with the direct-sold 10A and/orhouse content 10B.

As shown in FIG. 5E, digital ad buying system 50 may include biddermodule 50A, tracker module 50B, campaigns module 50C, attribution module50D, creatives module 50E, and reporting module 50F, to name a few. Oneor more of the aforementioned modules may be configured to: (i) receivebid requests from the bidding module 60 of the programmatic module 1,(ii) process the bid requests, (iii) generate bid responses, (iv) sendthe bid responses to the bidding module 60, (v) send digital advertisingcreatives to the bidding module 60, and/or (vi) perform an attributionprocess based on impression notifications received from the biddingmodule 60 and other events tracked by the digital ad buying system 50and/or an integrated measurement platform 40.

Turning back to FIG. 5A, measurement module 30, may be configured toreceive a play notification from bidding module 60. In embodiments,measurement module 30 may further be configured to interact with one ormore personal electronic devices 22-1-22-N, and digital ad buying system50 so that, as previously explained, the measurement module 30 maydynamically link actions performed on personal electronic devices 22-1 .. . 22-n in response to a call to action within the advertisements, withtracking in the digital ad buying system 50. Specifically, as shown inFIG. 5A, the measurement module 30 may send “physical click” informationto the digital ad buying system 50, where such information may begenerated by the measurement module 30 performing actions including, forexample, (i) receiving the call-to-action (CTA) response from a viewer'smobile device, (ii) retrieving the associated auction information bymatching against attributes of the CTA (e.g., device-specificadvertising identifier, date/time, location, campaign association,keyword), (iii) appending the auction identifier and device-specificadvertising identifier information to the extracted click-tracker, and(iv) mapping the CTA to the click-tracker (e.g., trigger the tag toensure tracking of the “physical click” action by the digital ad buyingsystem 50). Other “events” or actions taken on the one or more personalelectronic devices 22-1 . . . 22-N may be separately tracked by thedigital ad buying system 50 such that the digital ad buying system 50,and/or the integrated measurement platform 40, may perform post-clickattribution and/or post-view attribution. Post-click attribution may beperformed by the digital ad buying system 50 and/or by the integratedmeasurement platform 40, by establishing connection between physicalclick actions in direct response to a CTA embedded in a digitaladvertisement on a non-personal digital device event and one or moreimpression notifications sent by the bidding module 60. Post-viewattribution may be performed by the digital ad buying system 50 and/orby an integrated measurement platform 40, by establishing connectionbetween other actions taken by consumers, which are related, but not indirect response to, a digital advertisement on a non-personal digitaldevice (such as visiting a website, and/or purchasing a product, etc.)and one or more impression notifications sent by the bidding module 60.

FIGS. 6A-6F are conceptual flow diagrams showing a bidding process inaccordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the bidding process may involve interactionsbetween various components, as previously described, to allow forgeneration and/or communication of bid requests 603 related to one ormore ad slots available on the non-personal digital device 10, receiptand processing of bid responses 605, performance of an auction 607involving the received bid responses 605, generation of notifications609 of winning bid responses, and tracking and measurement of thedigital advertisement associated with the winning bid response. In thisregard, the non-personal digital device 10 may notify the bidding module60 of the availability of an ad slot available on the non-personaldigital device 10 via information included in ad request 617 (which maybe similar to step S402 described above in connection with FIG. 4). Suchnotification may include ad slot information, such as, for example, thetime period during which the ad slot is available, the dimensions thatare acceptable for display within the ad slot, a site ID associated withthe non-personal digital device 10 upon which the ad slot is available,and a projected impression number. In response to ad request 617, thebidding module may generate several bid requests, including Bid Request1 619, Bid Request 2 625 and Bid Request 3 629 (shown in FIG. 6B). Inexemplary embodiments, the number of bid requests may depend on thenumber of digital formats (e.g., IAB standard units, VAST video, devicerepresentations, and/or website/app identifiers, to name a few) acceptedby the non-personal digital device 10. In the exemplary bidding processshown in FIGS. 6A-6H, the number of acceptable formats is three, so thatthe bidding module 60 generates three bid requests, including BidRequest 1 619, Bid Request 2 625 and Bid Request 3 629. Each bid requestcontains information unique to the request. In the example shown, BidRequest 1 619 may include notification that a 300×600 banner slot isavailable, location information, user agent information, a URL, andimpression multiplier information; Bid Request 2 625 may includenotification that a 300×250 banner slot is available, locationinformation, device type, application identification, and impressionmultiplier information; and Bid Request 3 629 may include a notificationthat a VAST video slot is available, with further information pertainingto the video slot such as, for example, duration time, definition, andmin/max bitrate, along with location information and impressionmultiplier information associated with the ad slot.

As shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the bidding module 60 may receive bidresponses from various bidders. In the example shown, a Bid 1 621 and aBid 2 623 is received in response to Bid Request 1 619, a Bid 3 627 isreceived in response to Bid Request 2 625, and a Bid 4 631 and a Bid 5633 is received in response to Bid Request 3 629. The number of bidresponses may be equal to the number of available formats (three, inthis example), with the number of bids contained within each bidresponse depending on the actual number of bidders responding (five, inthis example). More specifically, in this example, Bid 1 621 and Bid 2623 include information (for example, a 300×600 banner, creative ID, bidprice and domain) relevant to the format associated with the Bid Request1 619; Bid 3 627 includes information (for example, a 300×250 banner,creative ID, bid price and domain) relevant to the format associatedwith the Bid Request 2 625; and Bid 4 631 and Bid 5 633 includeinformation (for example, a VAST wrapper, creative ID, bid price anddomain) relevant to the format associated with the Bid Request 3 629.

As shown in FIGS. 6C and 6D, the bidding module 60 performs an auctionduring which a winning bid is selected based on winning bid criteria,such as, for example, the highest price bid. The bids may be firstfiltered using one or more filtering criteria, such as, for example,whether the bid meets minimum pricing, whether the bid has been reviewedand/or approved for display, or whether the bid matches any relevantprivate deals, if applicable. The bidding module 60 communicates resultsof the auction to the various bidders in the form of loss notificationsand a win notification. In exemplary embodiments in accordance with thepresent invention, there may be no (i.e., zero) potential winning bidresponses to select from, either before or after filtering. If so, inembodiments, a message or other signal may be sent to the non-personaldigital device that there was no winning bid, so that alternate contentmay be displayed. In the example shown, Bid 1 621 and Bid 2 623 fallinto a first group 635 of bids lost due to the ads associated with thebid being disallowed, while Bid 3 627 falls into a second group 641 ofbids lost due to the bids failure to meet bid filtering criteria, whichmay include, for example, failure to meet minimum pricing requirements,the digital advertising creative associated with the bid has not beenreviewed nor has it been approved for display, and/or the bid did notmatch any relevant private deals, if applicable. In this example, theremaining bids, Bid 4 631 and Bid 5 633, meet the filtering criteria,but since Bid 5 633 offers the highest price, Bid 5 633 becomes thewinner of the auction (as indicated by reference number 647 in FIG. 6E).As a result, the bidding module 60 sends Loss Notifications 1, 2 and 3(reference numbers 637, 639, and 643, respectively, in FIGS. 6C and 6D)to the digital ad buying system(s) associated with the losing bids (aswell as a loss notification (not shown) to the digital ad buying systems50-1-50-N associated with the losing bid, Bid 4 631), and sends WinNotifications 1, 2, 3 (reference numbers 655A, 655B and 655C in FIG. 6E)to the digital ad buying system associated with the winning bid. Asexplained previously, the bidding module 60 may be configured to accountfor one or more individual impressions associated with the digitaladvertisement creative. This operation may be performed to account forthe possibility that the winning bid is not associated with a one-to-onebid request-to-bid response ratio, but instead may be associated withone winning bid corresponding to more than one impression record (inthis case, the X impression estimate is equal to three, and thus threewin notifications are generated). In this regard, the bidding module 60may store, from the winning bid contained in a digital ad buyingsystem's modified bid response, X sets of digital ad buying impressiondata provided by the winning digital ad buying system necessary togenerate a specific won impression data after receiving an initial winnotification. The bid communication module 64 may then construct Xnotifications to communicate the purchase of inventory through existingrecording mechanisms operatively connected to the digital ad buyingsystem 50. The X notifications may then be sent by the bid communicationmodule 64 to the winning digital advertisement buying system'snotification API.

As shown in FIG. 6E, the winning digital advertisement may be sent tothe non-personal digital device 10 in the form of an ad request response649, which may include a creative ID 5 and/or a creative markup. Forevery play of the ad on the device 10, a proof of play 651 may be sentby the device 10 through an API call, where the proof of play 651 mayinclude information such as, for example, time, site ID, creative IDand/or duration of the ad play. The bidding module 60 may process theproof of play 651 into an ad play 653, including information necessaryto generate the individual impression win notifications for each adplay.

As shown in FIG. 6F, in accordance with exemplary embodiments,advertising plays on the non-personal digital device 10 are translatedinto impressions 613 associated with device-specific advertisingidentifiers, thereby enabling advertising operations such as, forexample, same-device attribution, cross-device attribution, reach and/orfrequency analysis, audience analytics, performance optimization, and/orforecasting, to name a few. In this regard, as previously described, thedata collection module 90 may collect observation data (e.g.,observations 611) that includes data associated with one or morepersonal electronic devices 21-1-21-m and may filter the observationdata to determine the “actionable” observations corresponding to viewerswho were within a viewing geometry of the non-personal digital deviceduring the time in which the advertisement was displayed on thenon-personal digital device. This filtering process may filter out“unactionable” observations corresponding to individuals who were notwithin a viewing geometry of the non-personal digital device during thetime in which the advertisement was displayed on the non-personaldigital device 10. In the example shown, two observations (Observation 1657A and Observation 2 657B) are collected and analyzed (reference byAnalyzer 615A and Analyzer 615B in FIG. 6F) to determine whichobservations are actionable observations.

The data collection module 90 may then send notifications of billableimpressions 613 to the winning bidder. The example shown includes BudgetNotification 1 659A, Budget Notification 2 659B, and Budget Notification3 659C, with each notification associated with a corresponding device(Device 1, Device 2, or Device 3 in this example and shown in FIG. 6G)and auction (auction 1 and auction 6 in this example). The notificationmodule 90 may substitute each of the placeholder identifiers that werecommunicated at auction time with a corresponding one of the one or moredevice-specific advertising identifiers obtained from the actionableobservations, corresponding to one or more personal electronic devices21-1-21-m owned by and/or associated with viewers of the advertisement.As shown in FIGS. 6G-I, this substitution enables the digital ad buyingsystem 50 and/or the integrated measurement platform 40, to perform anattribution process of the impression to subsequent actions taken bythat viewer (e.g., visiting a website, downloading an app, and/orpurchasing a product, to name a few). This substitution may occur inreal-time (e.g., within a predetermined number of seconds, within apredetermined number of milliseconds, etc.), on a configurable time lag(a predetermined amount of time), or as a batch communication on aconfigurable time lag.

In the specific example shown in FIG. 6G, the Budget Notifications 1, 2,3 (659A, 659B, and 659C, respectively) are sent to the digital ad buyingsystem 50, and results in the generation of corresponding impressionrecords (Impressions Records 1, 2, 3 in this example). The digital adbuying system 50 may use the impression records in combination with oneor more recorded click event(s) 670 (e.g., a response to acall-to-action as recorded by the programmatic module 1) and/or with oneor more event 680 (e.g., not a direct response to a call-to-action, butinstead some other subsequent action taken by an observed personalelectronic device 21-n and related to the digital advertisement, such asa visit to a website or the purchase of a product) as inputs to anattribution process performed at the digital ad buying system 50. Inexemplary embodiments, the one or more event(s) 680 are obtained from asource external to the programmatic module 1 (as indicated by the dashedline in FIG. 6G).

In the specific example shown in FIG. 6H, the Budget Notifications 1, 2,3 (659A, 659B, and 659C, respectively) are sent to an optionalintegrated measurement platform 40, and results in the generation ofcorresponding impression records (Impressions Records 1, 2, 3 in thisexample). The integrated measurement platform 40 may use the impressionrecords in combination with one or more recorded click event(s) 670(e.g., a response to a call-to-action as recorded by the programmaticmodule 1) and/or with one or more events 680 (e.g., not a directresponse to a call-to-action, but instead some other subsequent actiontaken on an observed personal electronic device and related to thedigital advertisement, such as a visit to a website or the purchase of aproduct) as inputs to an attribution process performed at the integratedmeasurement platform 40. In exemplary embodiments, the one or moreevents 680 are obtained from a source external to the programmaticmodule 1 (as indicated by the dashed line in FIG. 6H).

In the specific example shown in FIG. 6I, the Budget Notifications 1, 2,3 (659A, 659B. and 659C, respectively) are sent to an optionalintegrated measurement platform 40, and results in the generation ofcorresponding impression records (Impressions Records 1, 2, 3 in thisexample). The integrated measurement platform 40 may use the impressionrecords in conjunction with one or more recorded click event(s) 670(e.g., a response to a call-to-action as recorded by the programmaticmodule 1) and/or with one or more events 680 (e.g., not a directresponse to a call-to-action, but instead some other subsequent actiontaken on an observed personal electronic device and related to thedigital advertisement, such as a visit to a website or the purchase of aproduct) as inputs to an attribution process performed at the integratedmeasurement platform 40. In exemplary embodiments, the one or moreevents 680 are obtained from a source external to the programmaticmodule 1 (as indicated by the dashed line in FIG. 6I). In the specificexample shown in FIG. 6I, the budget notifications 1, 2, 3 (659A, 659B,and 659C respectively) and the recorded click events 670 are sent to theintegrated measurement platform 40 in a batch communication (asindicated by the dashed line in FIG. 6I).

FIG. 7 shows the programmatic module 1 interacting with a digital adbuying system 50, observation data providers and consumers (operatingpersonal electronic devices) in accordance with exemplary embodiments ofthe present invention. The observation data may be collected directlyusing one or more sensors that detect presence of one or more userdevices within a predetermined viewing geometry relative to thenon-personal digital display 10 (in the example shown, the region is inthe shape of a cone oriented towards the front of the device, althoughthe geometry may have any other suitable shape, depending on theparticulars of the non-personal digital display). Observation data mayalso be integrated from third parties and delivered via an API. Asdiscussed previously, the programmatic module 1 may generate bidrequests and analyze bid responses as part of an auction, and sendwinning bid notifications to bidders with personal electronic deviceadvertising identifiers collected from observation data to allow adigital ad buying system 50 and/or integrated measurement platform 40 tocreate impression records and, if applicable, physical click records,with associated device-specific advertising identifiers, which in turnallows for attribution by the digital ad buying system 50 and/orintegrated measurement platform 40.

FIGS. 8A-8F are various representative illustrations of a display screen(e.g., monitor 12), generally designated by reference numbers 800A-800F,respectively, of a non-personal digital device 10 in accordance withexemplary embodiments of the present invention. As shown specifically inFIGS. 8A, 8B, 8C, 8E and 8F, a combination of informational content,graphic elements and companion digital advertisements and/or otherelements may be displayed within the screen along with the digitaladvertising creative to adapt display of standard digital units tofull-screen connected displays. Alternatively, or in addition, as shownin FIG. 8D, the digital advertisement creative may be linearly“stretched” to scale it to a larger logical size than the standard size(e.g., a 300×250 pixel digital advertising creative may be increased tobe 600×500, or 450×375 pixels) so as to provide an improved fit withinthe screen area, while preserving the aspect ratio and ensuring visualintegrity. In exemplary embodiments, the scaled ad may be automaticallysurrounded with a call-to-action message (FIGS. 8A and 8F) to informconsumers how they may directly interact with the digital advertisement.The remaining space in the ad may be dynamically filled with insertedcontent, where such content may be, for example, a neutral backgroundimage and/or content intended for consumer consumption such as time ofday, weather, and local information, to name a few. All of the elementsmay be used to fill the available display screen space, and/or ensurethat the displayed content is attractive and/or useful, while allowingfor accommodation of existing standard digital advertising formatsdesigned for display in web browsers, mobile applications, and/orexisting video players.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a method for processing bids and enablingof attribution based on won bid impressions associated with digitaladvertisements intended for display by a non-personal digital displaydevice 10 in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention. In step S901, the programmatic module 1 may receive, from thenon-personal digital device 10, an indication that an ad slot will beavailable for display of a digital advertisement on the non-personaldigital device 10 at a first period of time. In step S903, theprogrammatic module 1 may call N digital ad buying systems 50-1-50-N,where N is equal to one or more. Step S903 may involve, for example: (i)estimating a projected number of advertising impressions at thenon-personal digital device during the first period of time so as togenerate an impression estimate X; (ii) generating Y bid requests foreach of the N digital ad buying systems, where Y is equal to the numberof different messages required to express all digital advertisingformats supported by the non-personal digital device 10 and digital adbuying system 50; (iii) inserting a single proxy-ID into each of the Ybid requests; and (iv) sending to each of the N digital ad buyingsystems 50, the Y bid requests, each of the Y bid requests including theimpression estimate X and the proxy-ID.

In step S905, the programmatic module 1 may receive, from each of the Ndigital ad buying systems 50-1-50-N, Z bids, where Z is equal to one ormore, wherein the Z bids are contained in Y responses to the Y bidrequests. Each bid may include, for example: (i) pricing informationassociated with pricing the respective digital ad buying system iswilling to pay per impression; (ii) at least one of a digitaladvertising creative or an identifier of a previously registered digitaladvertising creative, where the digital advertising creative is to bedisplayed if the bid response is a winning bid response; (iii) metadataassociated with the digital advertising creative; and/or (iv) digital adbuying impression data configured for registering up to X impressions inthe respective digital ad buying system 50.

In step S907, the programmatic module 1 may select from at least some ofthe bid responses received from the N digital ad buying systems, awinning bid response associated with a winning advertiser. Step S907 mayinclude, for example: (i) determining bid responses from the at leastsome of the bid responses that meet minimum pricing requirements; (ii)determining bid responses from the at least some of the bid responsesthat have been reviewed and approved for display; (iii) upon thecondition that one or more private deals are associated with one or moreof the Y bid requests, determining bid responses from the at least someof the bid responses that match at least one of the one or more privatedeals; and/or (iv) selecting the winning bid response, for example,based on the highest price bid, among bid responses that meet minimumpricing requirements, has been reviewed and approved and, if applicable,matches associated private deals.

In step S909, the programmatic module 1 may notify a winning digital adbuying system 50 of the winning bid, from the winning bid response. StepS909 may include, for example: (i) obtaining from the winning bidresponse, X sets of digital ad buying impression data, the X sets ofdigital ad buying impression data configured to generate won impressionnotifications after receiving an initial win notification; (ii)generating X won impression notifications using the obtained X sets ofdigital ad buying impression data; (iii) generating, by the one or morecomputers, X unique placeholder advertising identifiers; (iv) appending,by the one or more computers, the X unique placeholder advertisingidentifiers to the X won impression notifications; and/or (v) sendingthe X won impression notifications with the appended placeholderadvertising identifiers to the winning digital ad buying system 50.

In step S911, the programmatic module 1 may access or receive, from anad server, a digital advertisement for display by the non-personaldigital device 10. The process then proceeds to step S913, where theprogrammatic module 1 may format the digital advertising creative fordisplay at the non-personal digital device. Alternatively, theprogrammatic module 1 may access a digital advertising creative alreadyreceived and stored before the bidding process. Formatting of thedigital advertisement may include, for example: (i) modifying thereceived digital advertising creative to optimize size and location ofdisplay on the non-personal digital device; (ii) extracting from thereceived digital advertisement, one or more ad tags and/or clicktrackers for capturing data associated with the delivery of theadvertisement; (iii) appending a consumer-executable call-to-action tothe digital advertisement that can be performed on the one or morepersonal electronic devices; and/or (iv) adding, by the one or morecomputers, to the digital advertisement, at least one of design elementsor content.

In step S915, the programmatic module 1 may translate recorded plays ofthe formatted digital advertisement on the non-personal digital device10 into individual impressions associated with collected actualdevice-specific advertising identifiers. Such translation may include,for example: (i) collecting observation data including data associatedwith one or more observed personal electronic devices; (ii) determining,based on the observation data, one or more impressions corresponding tothe one or more observed personal electronic devices that were within apredetermined viewing geometry around the non-personal digital deviceduring the first time period; (iii) substituting the one or moreplaceholder advertising identifiers with the one or more collectedactual device-specific advertising identifiers associated with the oneor more individual impressions; (iv) appending the one or more ad tagsextracted from the digital advertisement, if applicable; and/or (v)sending to the winning digital ad buying system, the one or morecollected actual device-specific advertising identifiers with one ormore budget notifications and appended ad tags associated with the oneor more impressions.

The steps of the process described in connection with FIG. 9 may berearranged and/or steps may be omitted.

Now that embodiments of the present invention have been shown anddescribed in detail, various modifications and improvements thereon canbecome readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, theexemplary embodiments of the present invention, as set forth above, areintended to be illustrative, not limiting. The spirit and scope of thepresent invention is to be construed broadly.

1. A method comprising: (A) receiving, at one or more computers, from anon-personal digital device, an indication that an ad slot will beavailable for display of a digital advertisement on the non-personaldigital device at a first period of time; (B) calling, by the one ormore computers, N digital ad buying systems, where N is equal to one ormore, the step of calling comprising: (i) estimating, by the one or morecomputers, a projected number of advertising impressions related to thedigital advertisement displayed by the non-personal digital deviceduring the first period of time; (ii) generating an impression estimateX based on at least the projected number of advertising impressions;(iii) generating, by the one or more computers, Y bid requests for eachof the N digital ad buying systems; and (iv) sending, by the one or morecomputers, to each of the N digital ad buying systems, the Y bidrequests, with each of the Y bid requests comprising the impressionestimate X; and (C) receiving, by the one or more computers, from eachof the N digital ad buying systems, Y bid responses to the Y bidrequests, wherein the Y bid responses include Z bids, where Z is equalto one or more, each of the Z bids comprising: (i) pricing informationassociated with a price that a respective digital ad buying system ofthe N digital buying systems is willing to pay per impression; (ii)digital advertisement creative information, wherein the digitaladvertisement creative information includes at least one of a digitaladvertisement creative or an identifier associated with a previouslyregistered digital advertisement creative, where the digitaladvertisement creative is to be displayed in the case where the bidresponse is a winning bid response; and (iii) digital ad buyingimpression data configured for registering up to X impressions in therespective digital ad buying system; (D) selecting, by the one or morecomputers, from at least some of the bid responses received from the Ndigital ad buying systems, a winning bid included in a winning bidresponse associated with a winning digital ad buying system of the Ndigital buying systems associated with a winning advertiser; (E)notifying, by the one or more computers, the winning digital ad buyingsystem of the winning bid included in the winning bid response, the stepof notifying comprising: (i) obtaining, by the one or more computers,from the winning bid response, X sets of digital ad buying impressiondata provided by the winning digital ad buying system associated withthe winning advertiser, the X sets of digital ad buying impression dataconfigured to generate one or more won impression notifications afterreceipt of an initial win notification; (ii) generating, by the one ormore computers, X won impression notifications based on at least theobtained X sets of digital ad buying impression data; (iii) generating,by the one or more computers, X unique placeholder advertisingidentifiers; (iv) appending, by the one or more computers, the X uniqueplaceholder advertising identifiers to the X won impressionnotifications; and (v) sending, from the one or more computers to thewinning digital ad buying system, the X won impression notificationswith the appended unique placeholder advertising identifiers; (F)accessing, by the one or more computers, the digital advertisingcreative associated with the winning bid; (G) formatting, by the one ormore computers, the winning digital advertising creative for display onthe non-personal digital device, the step of formatting comprising: (i)modifying, by the one or more computers, the winning digital advertisingcreative to optimize size and location associated with the display ofthe winning digital advertising creative on the non-personal digitaldevice; and (ii) extracting, by the one or more computers, from thewinning digital advertising creative, one or more click trackersprovided for recording interactions and recording events initiated onone or more personal electronic devices associated with one or moreconsumers exposed to the winning digital advertising creative; and (H)translating, by the one or more computers, plays of the formatteddigital advertising creative on the non-personal digital device into oneor more impressions associated with actual device-specific advertisingidentifiers, the step of translating comprising: (i) collecting, by theone or more computers, observation data comprising data associated withone or more observed personal electronic devices, the observation datacomprising: 1) one or more actual device-specific advertisingidentifiers comprised of at least one of: mobile advertising IDs,browser cookies, account user names, e-mail addresses or hashed e-mailtokens; 2) location data; and 3) an observation timestamp indicating atime an observation occurred; (ii) determining, by the one or morecomputers, based on the observation data, one or more impressionscorresponding to the one or more observed personal electronic devicesthat were within a predetermined viewable geometry around thenon-personal digital device during the first time period; and (iii)substituting, by the one or more computers, the one or more placeholderadvertising identifiers with the one or more collected actualdevice-specific advertising identifiers associated with the one or moreimpressions.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step (F) of accessingcomprises identifying the digital advertising creative informationassociated with the winning digital advertising creative.
 3. The methodof claim 1, wherein the step (F) comprises receiving the winning digitaladvertising creative from an ad server.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the step (G) of formatting further comprises: (iv) determiningwhether an entire available display area of the non-personal digitaldevice is occupied by the winning digital advertising creative; and (v)upon the condition that the winning digital advertising creative doesnot occupy the entire available display area of the non-personal digitaldevice, adding, by the one or more computers, to the winning digitaladvertising creative, at least one of a design element or content. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the step (G) of formatting furthercomprises: (iv) appending, by the one or more computers, aconsumer-executable call-to-action to the digital advertising creativethat can be performed on the one or more personal electronic devices. 6.The method of claim 1, where the impression estimate X is determinedbased on at least one of the following data items: (i) rating agencydata from rating agencies; (ii) network connection data from networkconnections; (iii) sensor data collected from one or more sensors; (iv)the observation data; or (v) mobile application data from one or moremobile applications.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step ofdetermining an impression estimate X comprises calculating, by the oneor more computers, an estimation of viewers based on a combination ofdata from a plurality of estimation data sources.
 8. The method of claim1, wherein the step of determining an impression estimate X comprisesadjusting, by the one or more computers, obtained estimation data for atleast one of: time of day, day of week, seasonality and observationaldata skew, real-time network activity, or real-time sensor data.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the step of generating, by the one or morecomputers, Y bid requests in an appropriate format, comprises the stepsof: (i) identifying, by the one or more computers, display capabilitiesof the non-personal digital device; (ii) translating, by the one or morecomputers, the display capabilities into one or more standard digitalformats that can be displayed given the display capabilities of thenon-personal digital device either through direct transformation orcomposition with other elements; and (iii) generating, by the one ormore computers, for each of the N digital ad buying systems, the Y bidrequests each associated with the one or more standard digital formats.10. The method of claim 9, wherein the display capabilities comprise atleast one of the following: (i) screen resolution; (ii) display size;(iii) video support; (iv) computational capacity; (v) audiocapabilities; or (vi) zoning restrictions.
 11. The method of claim 1,wherein the observation data is collected from a plurality of differentobservation data sources through an application programming interface.12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: (I) normalizing, by theone or more computers, the observation data, wherein the step ofnormalizing comprises the steps of: (i) translating, by the one or morecomputers, observation data from data providers into a standardizedformat; and (ii) validating, by the one or more computers, observationdata from data providers by eliminating invalid data, the invalid datacomprising at least one of the following: (a) observation data providedin an invalid format; (b) observation data provided after a publishedexpiration window; (c) observation data provided with insufficientfidelity or accuracy, as measured against trusted sources; (d)observation data provided which was interpolated from a lower-resolutiondata-source; (e) observation data provided which exhibits irregularitiesin distribution; or (f) observation data that is duplicative with otherobservation data.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: (H)generating, by the one or more computers, a single proxy-ID associatedwith one or more non-personal digital devices potentially viewed by aunique group of consumers, based on at least one of the following:configurable intervals of time, observed personal devices or computervision analysis; and (I) sending, by the one or more computers, theproxy-ID with each of the Y bid requests, to the N digital ad buyingsystems so that the one or more computers allow the digital ad buyingsystems to perform frequency capping and prevent over-exposure of agroup of consumers near a particular non-personal digital device to aparticular advertiser campaign or creative.
 14. The method of claim 1,further comprising: (I) removing observation data associated with one ormore personal electronic devices on which personal device restrictionsare enabled for distribution of at least one of device-specificadvertising identifiers or location information.
 15. The method of claim1, further comprising: (H) determining, by the one or more computers,whether the bid responses contain valid digital advertisement creatives,wherein the step of determining comprises: (i) determining, by the oneor more computers, whether the bid responses contain a digitaladvertisement creative that was previously approved; (ii) determining,by the one or more computers, whether the bid responses contain adigital advertisement creative that was previously rejected; and. (iii)determining, by the one or more computers, whether the bid responsescontain a digital advertisement creative with non-reviewed status. 16.The method of claim 15, wherein the step of determining, by the one ormore computers, whether the bid responses are valid comprises at leastone of the following steps: (iv) receiving, at the one or morecomputers, non-reviewed digital advertisement creatives from the digitalad buying systems, in real-time during the electronic bidding process orin advance, prior to the electronic bidding process, wherein the step ofreceiving comprises at least one of the following: (1) identifying, bythe one or more computers, non-reviewed digital advertisements; (2)providing, at the one or more computers, an application programminginterface allowing for submission of new digital advertisements forreview; or (3) determining, by the one or more computers, previouslyrejected bid responses with non-reviewed digital advertisement creativesto identify digital advertisement creatives needing review; (v)converting, by the one or more computer systems, formatted digitaladvertisements into image or video representations for review bypublishers to determine approved or rejected status; (vi) providing, bythe one or more computers, a graphical user interface to allow forreview and correction of metadata associated with a digitaladvertisement creative; or (vii) providing, by the one or morecomputers, workflow consistent with a required sequence of multiplereviewers or review processes.
 17. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: (I) dynamically identifying, by the one or more computers,actions performed on the one or more observed personal devices in directresponse to a call to action in the digital advertising creativedisplayed on the non-personal digital device, wherein the step ofdynamically identifying comprises: (i) receiving, at the one or morecomputers, from at least one of the one or more observed personalelectronic devices, an indication that a direct response to thecall-to-action was performed; (ii) retrieving, by the one or morecomputers, at least one of an associated advertisement auctionidentifier, an associated digital advertising campaign identifier, or anassociated digital advertising creative identifier by matching againstattributes of the call-to-action response; (iii) appending, by the oneor more computers, (a) the actual device-specific advertising identifierassociated with the at least one of the one or more observed personalelectronic devices and (b) the at least one of the associatedadvertisement auction identifier, the associated digital advertisingcampaign identifier, or the associated digital advertising creativeidentifier, to the extracted one or more click trackers; (iv)performing, by the one or more computers, a virtual consumer actionusing the extracted one or more click trackers as appended, to allow thewinning digital ad buying system to track an event corresponding to thedirect response to the call-to-action; and (v) in association withperformance of the virtual consumer action, triggering the one or moreclick trackers with the appended device-specific advertising identifiersand the at least one of the associated advertisement auction identifier,the associated digital advertising campaign identifier, or theassociated digital advertising creative identifier, so as to registerthe virtual consumer action in the winning digital ad buying system. 18.The method of claim 17, wherein the call-to-action comprises at leastone of: transmission of an SMS, MMS or other messaging system message,visit to a pre-defined webpage URL, scanning of a QR code and executionof an associated embedded action, e-mailing a pre-defined e-mailaddress, executing a command within an associated computer application,scanning of a coupon code, placing a call to a unique call-trackingtelephone number, or posting a social media message with a uniquehashtag.
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein the attributes of thecall-to-action comprises at least one of: date of the call-to-action,time of the call-to-action, an advertising campaign associated with thecall-to-action or a keyword associated with the call-to-action.
 20. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: (I) identifying, bythe one or more computers, the one or more impressions; and (J) sending,by the one or more computers, the one or more impressions to the winningdigital ad buying system or an integrated measurement platformassociated with the winning digital ad buying system within a timeframeallowing the one or more impressions to be associated, by virtue of theappended device-specific advertising identifiers and at least one of anassociated advertisement auction identifier, an associated digitaladvertising campaign identifier, or an associated digital advertisingcreative identifier, with other events performed on the one or morepersonal electronic devices and recorded by the winning digital adbuying system or an integrated measurement platform, so as to enable theattribution process within the winning digital ad buying system or theintegrated measurement platform, for impressions delivered onnon-personal digital devices.